APEC’s Policy Partnership for Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI) envisions that the APEC region will have achieved innovative economic growth by 2025. For details on this, read the PPSTI Strategic Plan 2016–2025.

The PPSTI’s mission is to “support the development of science and technology cooperation as well as effective science, technology, and innovation policy recommendations in APEC through collaboration between government, academia, private sector and other APEC fora.”

Formerly known as the Industrial Science and Technology Working Group (ISTWG), the partnership was formed in 2012, when APEC agreed to broaden the group’s mandate to include innovation policy development and to intensify cooperation among governments, businesses and academia. When the ISTWG was renamed to the PPSTI, a new terms of reference outlining the PPSTI’s mandate and goals was endorsed.

Last page update: April 2021

17th Meeting of the Policy Partnership for Science, Technology and Innovation (PPSTI-17)

On 24-25 February, the PPSTI virtually held its first meeting of 2021 (PPSTI-17). During this meeting, the PPSTI hosted a policy discussion on “Building Resilience in Science, Technology and Innovation Systems to Strengthen Economic Recovery and Foster Inclusive and Sustainable Growth.” Through this, experts explored how the APEC region could further leverage diverse knowledge and experiences to advance inclusive, sustainable growth and support post-COVID recovery. In addition, experts discussed how to build trust in science through strategies on communicating scientific advice to governments and to the public.

Delegates from 20 member economies attended, along with representatives from the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), among others.

Highlights of PPSTI-17 are as follows:

• The PPSTI endorsed the PPSTI Work Plan for 2021 and noted the APEC 2021 theme “Join, Work, Grow Together” as well as policy priorities which include, “Pursuing Innovation and a Digitally-Enabled Recovery.” Building on this, the PPSTI theme in 2021 is “Building Resilience in STI Systems for post-COVID Recovery and Future Shocks.”

  These are the accompanying PPSTI priorities:

  1. Leveraging Diverse Knowledge Systems for Inclusive and Sustainable Growth
  2. Strengthening Digital Networks and Tools to Support Capacity Building and Advance Science, Technology and Innovation
  3. Building Public Trust through Open Science and Communication
• The PPSTI confirmed its plan to conduct an internal comprehensive evaluation of the PPSTI Strategic Plan (2016-2025) this year. Through this initiative, PPSTI will review its activities, evaluate progress on the Key Performance Indicators, and identify new and emerging opportunities to support the APEC region and its leaders.
• The PPSTI also agreed to developing a PPSTI-endorsed policy statement, based on the PPSTI 2021 theme and discussions at its meetings.