About APEC

• The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific. 
• APEC operates as a cooperative, multilateral economic and trade forum.
• In APEC, all economies have an equal say and decision-making is reached by consensus. 
• There are no binding commitments or treaty obligations. Commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis and capacity building projects help members implement APEC initiatives.
• The APEC Secretariat is based in Singapore and operates as the core support mechanism for the APEC process.

Membership of APEC

• • There are 21 member economies at present. It includes Australia; Brunei Darussalam; Canada; Chile; People’s Republic of China; Hong Kong, China; Indonesia; Japan; Republic of Korea; Malaysia; Mexico; New Zealand; Papua New Guinea; Peru; The Philippines; The Russian Federation; Singapore; Chinese Taipei; Thailand; United States of America; Viet Nam.

• The word ‘economies’ is used to describe APEC members because the APEC cooperative process is predominantly concerned with trade and economic issues.

• India is not a member of APEC.