SEOUL, 28 May 2015 – Undersecretary for International Economic Relations Laura Q. del Rosario, the Philippines' SOM Leader for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum this year, gave a lecture to some 80 graduate students specializing in international relations, finance and trade at one of Korea's three leading private universities.

Coming fresh from chairing the APEC 2nd Senior Officials' Meeting (SOM2) in Boracay on 20-21 May 2015, Undersecretary del Rosario made a presentation mostly before masters students of Sogang University, Graduate School for International Studies (GSIS) at its regular Global Executive Lecture about developments in APEC and the Philippines' role in it.

In her 40-minute presentation at the J Building, third-story lecture hall, Undersecretary del Rosario challenged the attendees, including three Filipino students from other universities, to describe the rapid and comprehensive changes in technology, business and life style in the last 50 or so years, and how people should adapt to the variety, velocity and volume of change.

She also described the accomplishments of the recently concluded APEC SOM2 and related meetings, in particular the Boracay Action Agenda to Globalize MSMEs, which calls for a host of specific, concrete and practical interventions that APEC economies can implement to provide MSMEs wider opportunities to integrate into global or regional trade, either through global value chains (GVCs) or as direct exporters of finished goods and services.

She also fielded questions from students from Afghanistan, Thailand, Kazakhstan, China and the Philippines about political stability, the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), R&D in Southeast Asia, free movement of labor and students, technological transformation among social scientists and institutional connectivity among APEC economies.

Prior to the lecture, Undersecretary del Rosario, accompanied by Philippine Ambassador Raul S. Hernandez and other Embassy officials, met with the GSIS Dean, Dr. Yoon Heo and Dr Jaechun Kim, professor for international relations, and Dr. Sijoong Kim, professor specializing in Chinese economy and trade.

Undersecretary del Rosario led a 23-member Central Luzon trade and investment mission in B2B meetings hosted by the Philippine Embassy and at the Philippine Investment Conference held at the ASEAN-Korea Centre (AKC) on 28 May 2015.


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