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2021 New Year Message

APO Secretary-General
Dr. AKP Mochtan

APO Secretary-General Dr. AKP MochtanI believe that 2021 will be a year of challenge. We all continue to grapple with the consequences of the ongoing pandemic, which has brought so many changes to our lives. Without a doubt, it has changed the world of work. Across the region, businesses have been forced to close and millions of people have become unemployed.

Still, with every challenge comes the chance to learn and to overcome. Already, many of those in our member economies have transformed their practices in order to maintain business continuity. Within the APO, we have continued our activities and events, using technology and its platforms to connect with partners, stakeholders, and users online. I am proud of the work done by our organization in the past year as we continued to make the Asia-Pacific more resilient and productive.

Although 2020 is behind us, there is still much to be done. 2021 will be a chance to look both to our past and our future as the APO celebrates its 60th anniversary and as we follow our new vision for the next five years of driving “inclusive, innovation-led productivity growth in the Asia-Pacific.” This will involve the hard work of rebuilding post-COVID and the perhaps even harder work of reimagining styles of business, work, and life.

I wish all our friends and partners a happy, healthy new year and hope that we can start 2021 recharged for the year ahead. I am reminded of the lines from a Robert Frost poem:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Let us be proactive and productive in keeping our promises and meeting the challenges of 2021.

Happy New Year!

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