Conference Theme:
APEC and the Future of Inclsive Development
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to promote economic integration and sustainable growth for economies bordering the Pacific Rim. For decades, APEC has been grounded on the principle of openness and inclusiveness, advancing regional economic integration of the Asia-Pacific while remaining open to the global economy. ‘Open regionalism’ has been a defining principle of APEC since its inception. In the APEC Summit 2025 in Gyeongju, South Korea, Chinese President Xi Jinping echoed this principle, calling on APEC economies to safeguard ‘open and inclusive development’. Today, with member economies accounting for around 60 percent of global GDP, APEC has become one of the most important regional forums in the world.
Thirty-seven years after its founding, however, APEC’s principle of economic openness and volunteerism is not only at stake, but under attack. This is observed from several perspectives. First, the largest economy of APEC, the United States, has retreated from multilateralism, global free trade, and above all, its traditional role as the region’s provider of public goods. Second, rising security tensions between some member economies have stymied deeper economic integration and disrupted stability of global supply chains throughout the region. Third, staggering advancements in emerging technologies, most notably artificial intelligence, have brought about significant impacts upon APEC economies, reshaping their domestic organisation of production, employment, and social norms in unprecedented ways. Finally, climate change, ecological decline, and soaring energy prices are posing critical challenges to ongoing industrialization and energy transition programmes in developing APEC economies.
China, the second-largest economy of the world and a member economy of APEC, hosts the APEC Summit in 2026 in Shenzhen, the heart of China’s manufacturing and technological innovation. The historical occasion offers a unique chance to reflect upon the future of inclusive development. As a globally oriented research institute based in southern China, IPP believes that the Asia-Pacific has served as an example of how culturally- and developmentally diverse economies co-exist and cooperate through mutual respect, peaceful dialogue, and volunteerism.
This conference, bringing together scholars and policymakers, seeks to discuss the following questions: In an era marked by global disorder, how can economies sustain open and inclusive development in the Asia-Pacific? To what degree and how can the principle of open and inclusive development be maintained in today’s geo-economic context? Should APEC be reformed—and if so, to what extent and in what ways?
Conference Agenda
Date: August 2026
Venue: TBC
Day 1: Registration and Welcome Dinner
Day 2: Academic Conference
Day 3: A Trip to Production Plants of XPeng and GAC (Guangzhou Automobile Corporation)
Conference Convener: Professor Zheng Yongnian (Chair of Academic Committee, Institute of Public Policy, South China University of Technology; Board Director of Guangzhou Institute of the Greater Bay Area; Deng Presidential Chair Professor, the Presidential Chair Professor, the Founding Director of the Advanced Institute of the Institute for International Affairs, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen)
