Trade ministers from the 21 Pacific Rim countries gathered during a major trade meeting on Saturday in Hanoi to discuss future plans for regional trade co-operation amid growing fears of protectionism, as well as changes in politics, economies and technology.

As one of APEC’s most prominent ministerial gatherings, the 23rd Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT23) kicked off in the presence of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

In his opening remarks, PM Phuc highlighted APEC’s three decades of growth and endorsed its important role as the economic driver and growth engine of the Asia-Pacific region and the world.

Of note, the average regional tariff has been reduced from 17 per cent since its inception in 1989 to 5.5 per cent in 2016, as incomes and living standards have been improved for a large proportion of the region’s population.

“These outcomes have provided testament to the efforts of the region for trade liberalisation, trade and investment facilitation, as well as shared regional stability, development and prosperity,” PM Phuc said.

He also raised concerns over multiple evolutions in politics, economies and technology, especially the fourth industrial revolution and the emergence of the digital economy, which have brought substantial economic, cultural and social changes.

APEC is aiming for a truly connected Asia-Pacific, in terms of its people, infrastructure, technology and information, in order to expand economic growth, trade and investment and oversee comprehensive institutional reform in each member country.

PM Phuc called on the regional member economies to step up economic and technical co-operation, experience and information sharing during the process of policy-making and implementation of co-operation programmes.

“However, co-operation plans and their fine goals might still fail to turn into reality when we lack trust, political determination and co-ordination to safeguard a peaceful environment, ensure security and safety for investment and the flows of goods in the region,” he noted.

Vietnam’s active participation

Vietnam officially joined APEC in 1998. Since then, APEC has played an increasingly important role in the country’s economic development.

APEC member economies have contributed about 78 per cent of the total FDI inflows to Vi?t Nam, 75 per cent of total merchandise trade and 79 per cent of the total number of tourists to the country. Additionally, 13 APEC members have become Vietnam’s strategic and comprehensive partners.

“With its strong determination and efforts to deepen reform and international integration, Vietnam has made significant contributions to APEC’s co-operation,” PM Phuc said.

In the first day of the meeting, ministers exchanged and discussed ongoing initiatives related to sustainable, inclusive and innovative growth in APEC, especially initiatives in promoting competitiveness of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Vietnam has provided updates on the progress of the Action Agenda on promoting economic, financial and social inclusion in the APEC region, as well as progress on the APEC framework for developing human resources in the digital age.

Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Roberto Azevedo reported progress by WTO in preparation for the 11th  WTO ministerial meeting in Argentina at the end of this year.

The meeting highlighted WTO’s recent achievements in promoting free trade, including endorsement of Bali and Nairobi outcomes, the Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) and the Protocol amending the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).

This is an important basis for the WTO to advance negotiations on the remaining Doha Development Agenda.

Trade officials have exchanged views on current regional and global economic trends, challenges and outlooks, including trade agreement negotiations and implementation. They discussed how to accelerate progress in fulfilling the Bogor Goals and initiatives to advance regional economic integration.

Most APEC members agreed to support free and open trade and committed to continue building a strong, transparent and rule-based multilateral trading system.

The meeting closed on Sunday after discussion about the APEC post-2020 vision.

High ranking officials’ meetings

On Saturday, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who is in Vietnam for the APEC 23rd

Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Trade (MRT23).

PM Phuc highlighted the United States’ crucial role in the Asia-Pacific region’s economic co-operation, hoping the two countries would continue promoting its co-operation activities, particularly in economy and trade, to contribute to regional and global prosperity.

Vietnam and the United States have enjoyed sound trade relations, and have witnessed significant achievements. The PM confirmed that

Vietnam supports free trade, on the basis of fairness and mutual benefits, and values economic relations with the United States.

For his part, Lighthizer underlined that Vietnam is his first destination as US Trade Representative, adding that the US always attaches importance to trade and economic development with the Southeast Asian country.

He also promised to cooperate with Vietnamese authorities to expand cooperation projects, helping develop bilateral trade and economic ties.

On the same day, PM Phuc greeted Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko. He said the Vietnamese Government would assist Japanese enterprises seeking to invest in Vietnam and called upon the two countries to flesh out new co-operation understandings to elevate bilateral trade to a new high.

He also asked organisations from both sides to discuss solutions to promoting farm produce imports and exports and contributing to increasing two-way trade, which remains below the two countries’ potential.

Meanwhile, Minister Hiroshige Seko said Vietnam played a significant role in fostering co-operation mechanisms in Asia-Pacific and the world. He said that the Japanese Government and people hope the Prime Minister will pay an official visit to the country and pledged that his ministry will contribute to the success of the Vietnamese leader’s visit.

Today, the eight-year-old has his own robot companion – GT Wonder Boy – designed and developed by his father, Dr Paul Zhang, with the help of a team of engineers.

He has the prototype of Singapore’s latest robot, completely researched and developed here. It will go on sale here in August.

It may be small at 24cm, with a mobile phone-like body, but GT Wonder Boy is not a toy.

The robot companion can be used to entertain an elderly person living alone at home by talking or singing to him, or be used at work as a personal assistant. It can be controlled through voice command and, if a user wants to send a text message or make a restaurant booking, the robot will access the Internet and do just that.

Dr Zhang, 55, said it can hold a conversation in 13 languages, including English and Mandarin, recognise voices and faces, do mathematics, dance and sing. And it can also do what a regular smartphone does, including taking photos.

Dr Zhang is the founder of GT Robot Technology. He said that over the two years, the research and development process had encountered many failures.

One of the tougher challenges was to get the robot to understand different accents, which Dr Zhang said was extremely tedious.

But the Portuguese citizen, who lives in Singapore, pressed on because he wanted the robot to “benefit many people”, which is also why it was eventually developed to speak and understand over a dozen languages.

Other challenges included developing an in-house operating system that could convert text into words, and decode what it hears and give a logical response.

But it was a labour of love, said Dr Zhang, who is also chairman and chief executive of the GT group of companies that has other businesses such as GT Mobile, which develops smartphones and smart watches, and GT Dollar, an e-commerce mobile app.

“It is my dedication of love to my own wonder boy – my son, who has inspired me to create this Wonder Boy,” said Dr Zhang, who has another son, Feliciano, four.

His wife is the executive director of GT Robot Technology.

Dr Zhang said he assembled and led a team of robotics experts from countries such as France, the United States, Singapore, Malaysia and China to develop GT Wonder Boy.

There have been other robots developed in Singapore. Last year, four students from Nanyang Polytechnic won over judges at the finals of the Microsoft Imagine Cup Singapore 2016. They built Ruth, a social robot designed to keep seniors living alone happy and safe.

Dr Zhang said his robot is not yet perfect and the team will continue to improve on it, perhaps even giving it the ability to sense smoke so that it can alert its user to a fire.

But he is planning to sell his robot in three months. The first 10,000 – manufactured in Singapore and China – will be available exclusively in Singapore. They are expected to retail for about US$2,000 (S$2,800) each.

“The robot was fully developed here, so it is only natural that we let Singaporeans be the first to experience its capabilities,” said Dr Zhang.

After that, 100,000 more will be sold worldwide.

GT Wonder Boy may not be perfect yet but Emiliano is happy with it. He said: “It can help me with my homework, especially mathematics.”

“Study well… Don’t hit anyone,” he says. The boy gets on the motorcycle and rides out of the gate, whereupon another rider crashes into him.

This road safety awareness video, released by Ramathibodi Hospital’s Child Safety Promotion and Injury Prevention Centre (CSIP) last year, has resonated with many in Thailand, where 73 per cent of traffic-related deaths involve motorcycles.

Experts said last month that, on average, 5,500 motorcyclists die annually – or 15 deaths a day. The figure continues to climb, making Thailand the world’s deadliest country for two-wheelers. The issue returned to the fore this month after two separate motorbike accidents in Phuket killed a pregnant British tourist and seriously injured another British tourist.

“If you take motorcycles out of the equation, Thailand’s roads will be as safe as (those in) Switzerland, the United States and the United Kingdom,” Dr Liviu Vedrasco, health cluster chief at the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Bangkok, told The Sunday Times.

In a 2015 report, WHO said there were 26.3 motorcycle-related deaths for every 100,000 people in Thailand, the highest in the world.

Motorcycles are a common mode of transport for Thais. Last year, they bought 1.74 million motorcycles compared with only 768,788 cars, according to the Thai Automotive Industry Association. In the first quarter of this year, 461,783 motorcycles were sold.

A 2015 study by the Thailand Accident Research Centre (Tarc) said motorbikes are popular for their convenience, low fuel and maintenance costs, and affordability.

CSIP director Adisak Plitpolkarnpim said the practice of allowing children to ride motorbikes is prevalent, especially in provinces. “Children ride them to school, for fun, or to run errands for their parents,” he said.

Under Thai law, those who are 15 years old can get a driver’s licence for vehicles with engines less than 110cc, but Dr Adisak said this is widely violated. CSIP said about 15,800 children get into motorcycle-related accidents annually, resulting in an estimated 700 deaths.

Reducing these numbers will take more than a road safety video.

The Asia Injury Prevention Foundation (AIPF) starts them young through the Street Wise Programme, which teaches schoolchildren the importance of wearing helmets. Thailand’s helmet law is not strictly enforced, especially in provinces and among pillion riders.

During the United Nations’ Global Road Safety Week earlier this month, AIPF joined other advocates in urging schools to include helmet wearing as part of the curriculum. “It is best to teach them about discipline while they are young,” said AIPF country manager Oratai Junsuwanaruk. “Imagine, only 7 per cent of children who ride as passengers wear helmets.”

The Tarc study cited lack of sleep, drink driving, ignorance of the law and speeding as the main causes of accidents. It said most motorbike deaths were due to fatal head injuries among pillion passengers. A 2013 survey showed only 19 per cent of pillion riders wore helmets, compared with 53 per cent of riders.

WHO’s Dr Vedrasco said the government should pay attention to motorcycle riders.

“If you want to really save lives, do something about this risk group,” he said. “Impose the helmet law strictly, and make them safer riders through more hours of training. Or, like in China, dedicate a special lane for them.”

Erdogan rejoined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on May 2 after the public approved changes to create an executive presidency on April 16.

Under the old constitution, the head of state had to sever ties with their political party and Erdogan left as AKP chairman in August 2014 after his election as president.

Rejoining the AKP was the first major change permitted after the vote, allowing the president to be affiliated with a political party almost immediately.

Erdogan narrowly won with 51.4 percent of the vote but most of the new system, including axing the role of premier, will not come into force until November 3, 2019.

However, as leader Erdogan can decide the party’s direction.

Current party leader and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will be given a newly-created role of “vice chairman”, AKP deputy chairman Hayati Yazici said on Saturday.

Erdogan led the party for three terms during his premiership between 2003 and 2014, after he co-founded it in 2001.

The father-of-four affectionately describes the most effective Islamic rooted political force in the history of modern Turkey as his fifth child.

After becoming a party member again in an emotional grand ceremony in Ankara, Erdogan said he had “returned to my home, my passion, my love”.

With Erdogan as party leader, all eyes will be on the cabinet, with Hurriyet daily speculating at the weekend that eight to 10 ministers could be reshuffled.

Era of transformation

Nearly 1,500 delegates will vote to decide the new party leader, state-run news agency Anadolu reported, in an election where there is only one candidate: Erdogan.

If chosen, it will be the first time the president will be both party chairman and head of state since the end of the presidency in 1950 of Ismet Inonu, the successor and right-hand-man of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s modern founder.

In the capital and on social media posters and images have appeared of Erdogan and slogans such as “iron will, strong Turkey” and “full steam ahead with the founding leader”.

A special congress slogan reads “a new breakthrough period: democracy, transformation, reform” hinting at the expected restructuring of the government as well as changes to the party’s executive in the coming weeks and months.

Erdogan told party officials “the new period means a new action plan” without giving details, Hurriyet reported on Saturday.

Up to 60,000 participants from across Turkey are expected to descend on Ankara for the congress in the stadium in the city centre, Anadolu reported.

‘Party full of loyalists’

Turkish pro-government media has been full of AKP officials speculating that Erdogan’s return will mean the end of the party’s internal rivalries and will boost morale.

According to Aykan Erdemir, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Erdogan “could informally dictate the AKP’s MP candidates to a great extent” even after leaving in 2014.

But the former MP for Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said becoming chairman would mean Erdogan gains the “formal authority to determine who runs for office from AKP lists”.

Erdemir told AFP: “This new prerogative will allow him to design both a party apparatus and a parliamentary group composed entirely of loyalists.”

Well-connected Hurriyet columnist Abdulkadir Selvi previously said Erdogan would oversee a oversee a shake-up of AKP leaders at local level determined by their success in the referendum.

“The most crucial outcome of his power grab within the AKP is that as the president-cum-party leader, Erdogan will hold the reins of the lawmakers who are supposed to check and balance the executive, and impeach the president, if necessary,” Erdemir said.

“Hence, by becoming the AKP leader, Erdogan wants to make sure that he has enough loyalists in the parliament to block any impeachment attempts.”

The 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership covered 40 percent of the global economy before Trump abruptly abandoned it in January as part of a campaign pledge to save American jobs he says have been sucked up overseas.

But key remaining members of the pact are desperate to keep the deal alive, believing it will lock-in free trade as well as boost labour rights and environmental protections.

The charge is being led by Japan, New Zealand and Australia who are leading the so-called TPP 11.

Trade representatives agreed to help the United States to rejoin the deal at any time, pinning hopes on a U-turn in American policy.

“We very much expect the full participation of all countries that negotiated TPP from the start, and we will consider a mechanism to ensure (that),” said Vietnam’s Trade Minister Tran Tuan Anh, who co-chaired the meeting.

Spearheaded by former US president Barack Obama, the far-reaching TPP — which notably excludes China — would have rewritten the rules of 21st century trade.

The deal goes further than most existing free trade pacts, with labour laws, environmental protections and intellectual property rights touted as a new gold standard for global trade.

It promised to transform smaller economies such as Vietnam by carving out unprecedented access to the world’s top economies.

But Trump denounced the deal as a “job killer” and a “rape” of American interests.

His administration has instead vowed to seek bilateral trade deals with partners.

– Balance of power –

====================

The deal was also seen as a way to counter Beijing’s regional economic dominance.

Reviving the TPP, even without the heft of the world’s biggest economy, would still provide ballast against China, analyst Alex Capri told AFP.

“The Chinese would not be particularly pleased to see the TPP go ahead even without the United States,” said Capri, a senior fellow and professor at the National University of Singapore.

He did not rule out the eventual return of the United States to the TPP, noting that Trump has “flip-flopped” on other campaign positions in a headline-grabbing first few months in office.

The TPP ministers met on the sidelines of a gathering of trade ministers from the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in preparation for a November summit of global leaders.

Newly-appointed US trade chief Robert Lighthizer attended the two-day gathering, where he was scheduled to meet one-on-one with several ministers, including from China, Canada and Mexico.

The Reagan-era trade veteran has been tasked with renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) — another deal Trumped promised to pull out of, though he later backpedalled after speaking to the leaders of Canada and Mexico.

The Trump administration has said it is seeking bilateral agreements over sweeping free trade pacts, and is pushing for fair trade with partners, not just free trade.

But Beijing has shown that it can also hurt others by cutting a lucrative Chinese export: tourists who normally flock to South Korea or Taiwan.

China’s recent boycott of South Korea over a US anti-missile shield on the Korean peninsula signals a growing aggression in the way it flexes its economic muscles, analysts say.

Beijing has banned Chinese tour groups from going to the South, hammering its tourist market and the duty-free shops of retail giant Lotte Group, which has been targeted for providing land for the controversial defence system.

Dozens of Lotte stores were closed in China and protests held across the country as Beijing ramped up pressure on Seoul to abandon the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, which it sees as a threat to its own military capability.

Lotte also suffered setbacks in several of its Chinese ventures — from the government-ordered halt of a $2.6 billion theme park project to apparent cyberattacks on company websites.

“If you don’t do what Beijing’s political leaders want they will punish you economically,” said Shaun Rein, founder of Shanghai-based China Market Research Group.

“They put the economic vise on politicians around the world. They have been doing it for years and it works.”

Seoul-based tour operator Korea-China International Tourism has reported an 85 percent drop in tourists in recent months, which its founder attributes to China’s anger over THAAD.

The company usually receives 4,000 mostly Chinese visitors a month, but that has fallen to around 500 after Beijing warned tourists about the risks of travelling to the South, and ordered Chinese tour operators to stop sending groups there.

– ‘Carrot and stick’ –

======================

As the world’s second-largest economy and biggest trader, China can also inflict pain by blocking certain imports.

Norway learned that lesson the hard way. After the Oslo-based Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 Peace Prize to jailed Chinese activist Liu Xiaobo, China halted Norwegian salmon exports.

Relations only returned to normal in April after Oslo pledged its commitment to the one-China policy and respect for China’s territorial integrity.

Mongolia also incurred Beijing’s wrath in November when it allowed the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who China views as a devious separatist, to visit the impoverished landlocked country.

Following the exiled Buddhist monk’s visit, China reportedly took punitive measures against Mongolia, including stopping trucks carrying coal from crossing the Chinese border — a move with heavy repercussions for Mongolian mining concerns.

Tourism to Taiwan has also fallen sharply as relations across the strait worsen.

The Taipei Hotel Association reported decreases of up to 50 percent in Chinese visitors in recent months and warned “the situation could get worse”.

“I’ve been told by friends not to visit Taiwan since the cross-strait situation is tense but I am just a regular citizen so I am not too worried about that,” a 58-year-old Chinese man surnamed Liu said in a Taipei duty free shop.

Countries that submit to China’s demands, however, can find themselves rewarded.

A ban on 27 Philippine tropical fruit export companies was lifted after President Rodrigo Duterte declared his “separation” from the United States during a visit to Beijing in October, confirming his tilt towards China.

The sanctions had been intended to punish Manila for its South China Sea stance.

South Korea will be hoping for a similar outcome after its new President Moon Jae-In dispatched his envoy Lee Hae-Chan to China after his election victory last week, in an apparent effort to mend fences with Beijing.

“It’s a kind of carrot and stick policy. They (China) are doing it to show they have more leverage now and send a signal,” said Jean-Pierre Cabestan, a professor in political science at Hong Kong Baptist University.

“The irony is that China has criticised that way of doing things but now China is less hesitant to do the same thing because she’s stronger and feels she can do it.”

– Filling the void –

====================

Analysts expect China to become even more assertive as it seeks to fill the vacuum created by the US retreat into “America First” policies promoted by President Donald Trump.

“Smaller nations (in Asia) don’t feel that Trump is going to support them,” said Rein.

But in the case of South Korea, Asia’s fourth-largest economy, Beijing has been careful to target specific sectors to avoid disruption that could backfire on Chinese companies.

“It has become a well-developed tool of diplomatic pressure,” said Andrew Gilholm, director of analysis of Greater China and North Asia at Control Risks.