—to take place in Peru from February 24 to March 8— will lead to hosting between 1,200 and 2,000 delegates from the 21 economies that make up this important bloc.
This was stated by Ambassador Carlos Vasquez, Chairman of the APEC Peru 2024 Senior Officials' Meetings (SOM Chair), in an interview with Andina news agency.
The diplomat explained that the Senior Officials' Meeting —to take place on March 8— will be preceded by a series of meetings of sub-forums, expert committees, or working committees of various segments that will last two weeks at Lima Convention Center.
Ambassador Vasquez indicated that there are between 50 and 60 participants for each committee. In some cases, the number rises to 100.
Besides, around 20 committees will meet simultaneously throughout two weeks and then report to senior officials.
"There are expert groups of all kinds, such as the health expert group, the working committee on illegal logging, the digital economy working committee, the committee on trade, on investments, among others," he explained.
The most important topics to be discussed are competition policies; food security; oceans and fisheries; investments; energy; illegal logging; intellectual property; science, technology, and innovation; digital economy; customs; health; informality; anti-corruption and transparency; in addition to services.
Senior officials will receive reports from working groups and expert committees to deliberate on every issue previously worked on.
Ambassador Vasquez said that, according to APEC guidelines, the host economy has to appoint the Senior Officials' Chair, whose role is to promote consensus and agreements, because all decisions must be made by consensus.
It must be noted that the Second Senior Officials' Meeting and related events will be held in the southern city of Arequipa in May.
The number of main committees, subcommittees, and working groups, plus the SOM (Senior Officials Meeting) that will meet from February 24 to March 8, is 28.