I am deeply honored to welcome you all to the City of Iloilo–the City of Love. And I am privileged to join you in this High Level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and Blue Economy. The City of Iloilo has a rich history of culture and trade with many APEC economies. In the olden times, this City was an important trade route for neighboring economies such as China, Indonesia and Malaysia. During the Spanish period, Iloilo was a primary port for the export of sugar to China and the Spanish territories across the Pacific.

Our meeting today is highly significant. It is an opportunity to discuss concrete and feasible actions to advance sustainable management and conservation of our coastal ecosystems and habitats. It will also give us the chance to push forward improved biodiversity for higher fishery productivity and better ecological services. We shall focus on one of the four priority themes of the host economy: “Building Sustainable and Resilient Communities.” This will lead us to the three other priorities, namely: (1) enhancement of regional economic agenda, (2) fostering Small Medium Enterprises’ (SMEs) participation in regional and global markets, and (3) supporting and investing in human resources. We believe that these initiatives will contribute to making the theme of APEC Philippines 2015: “Building inclusive economies, building a better world,” a reality. We envision a regional cooperation to narrow the gap in economic development of our economies while sustaining growth with equity. APEC, as we all know today, comprises of economies at varying levels of development. Thus, there is a need for us to cooperate and address this wide economic gap.

The marine resources in the Asia Pacific region are vital in achieving food security. This region accounts for two-thirds of the world’s capture fishery production and 80% of the world’s aquaculture production. To sustain and improve the productivity of our oceans, we need to enhance the biodiversity of coastal and marine ecosystems. Healthy ecosystems support higher fishery production and provide better ecological services such as regulation of climate and disaster risk reduction. Hence, if we have healthy marine and coastal ecosystems, we can develop our brand of “Blue Economy”. This is an approach to advance sustainable management and conservation of ocean and coastal resources and ecosystems in order to foster economic growth.

As your host for this meeting, we humbly offer a Plan of Action, which we encourage each of the APEC economies to implement. The Plan of Action consists of three priorities each with a set of actions building on existing APEC commitments. These three priorities are: (1) Resilient Oceans, Coastal Resources and Ecosystems, and Sustainable Aquaculture, (2) Fish Loss Reduction, and (3) Agribusiness and Blue Economy. The Plan of Action has undergone several revisions taking into consideration the valuable comments and suggestions from different member economies. I am hopeful that the Plan of Action of the APEC High Level Policy Dialogue on Food Security and Blue Economy will be adopted at the end of this meeting.

Your Excellencies, distinguished delegates and guests, allow me to thank you from the bottom of my heart for honoring us with your presence here in the City of Iloilo. I am confident that we shall have a fruitful dialogue ahead of us.

Thank you and again, good morning.