Marcos set for next week’s APEC in San Francisco, visiting also Los Angeles and Hawaii

By Claire Morales True, Managing Editor

SAN FRANCISCO/MANILA – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. is in readiness for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California next week.

Marcos also announced he will meet the Filipino community in the San Francisco Bay Area and later will fly to Los Angeles for more business meetings and interaction with Filipinos there.

Marcos has also accepted an invitation to visit the Indo Pacific Command of the United States in Honolulu, Hawaii where he is also expected to interact with the Filipino community in that state.

The APEC meeting hosted by San Francisco and the state of California will push through despite concerns on security, traffic, homeless citizens on the streets and others.

State, city and APEC officials have been in frenzied activities for several weeks now to ensure the success of the big event to be attended by heads of 21 APEC member countries and thousands of ministerial, business and economic leaders, including tourists.

APEC’s 21 member economies are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.

US President Joe Biden will lead the summit which is expected to be attended by China’s President Xinping. A Biden-Xi dialogue is expected to smoothen the relationship of the two countries.

Marcos confirmed his attendance during his meeting with members of the United States (US)-Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Council at Malacañan Palace in Manila. It will be his second attendance to an APEC Leaders Summit, the first was in Bangkok, Thailand.

“I look forward to joining fellow APEC Leaders in California later this year. This will be my third trip to the US since I assumed office,” Marcos told the US-ASEAN Business Council.

The APEC is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific.

This year, the US will chair the forum which will be held on Nov. 14 to 16 at the Moscone Center West in San Francisco, California.

Focusing on “Creating Economic Opportunity,” the APEC Summit will feature a lineup of dynamic and diverse speakers who will highlight the potential of collaboration to build a future that is centered on sustainability, inclusion, resilience and innovation.

Marcos is among the economic leaders who are expected to speak at the summit, according to APEC’s official website.

Marcos said he would advance the country’s energy security interest when he joins his fellow APEC leaders during the economic bloc’s gathering.

“With energy security high in the economic agenda, we are particularly interested in sustainable land, water, and ocean solutions that align with our climate goals and support our plans to transform the Philippines into an upper Middle-Income Country by the year 2025,” he said.

“All efforts to increase the number of power sources lean towards clean energy. That being the case, I am interested in the potential of nuclear energy, especially in light of new technologies and innovations that allow the use of smaller scale, modular, nuclear reactors, and other advanced [reactors] technologies that we see as being safer and more efficient than the more traditional designs of nuclear power production,” Marcos added.

Marcos noted that there are ongoing discussions with the US on the 123 Agreement which will provide the legal framework for civil and nuclear-related investments, particularly nuclear power, in the Philippines.

He expressed optimism that partnerships with the US and other countries, especially the private sector, would lead to the establishment of the necessary infrastructure for the planned transition to clean and renewable energy.

“We recognize the rule that we have set for ourselves that is the slow transition and it is slow. We all have great hopes that the transition to renewables will be easy or simple. It turns out that is not going to be the case and we have to be realistic in this regard,” he said.