APEC economies move to fight terrorism

MANILA, Philippines - Member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) are strengthening their unity in the region to fight terrorism through new joint measures to curb the financing of terrorist groups, secure travel and trade, and ensure security.

The new programs were brought forward during a three-day assembly last week of counterterrorism officials in Subic Bay.

Oscar Valenzuela, new chair of the APEC Counterterrorism Working Group which manages coordination between member economies on the issue, said APEC members are stepping up their defense against terrorism in the region amid unsettling changes in the security landscape.

“We continue to see a rise in the spread of violent extremism worldwide,” Valenzuela said.

The death of two Japanese hostages at the hands of Islamic militants and the pipeline of foreign funding and recruits to advance the terrorist agenda of such groups, he said, are “signals of an increased threat across the Asia-Pacific.”

“APEC members are strengthening capacity in the Asia-Pacific region to fight terrorism and ensure the security of our people and our economies. It is critical to move swiftly to address advances in technology and communications that are bringing new counterterrorism challenges to the surface and put lives and livelihoods at greater risk,” he added.

The Philippines is chair of APEC in 2015.

Valenzuela, who also serves as senior counterterrorism director under the Anti-Terrorism Council of the Philippines, noted that work in APEC has commenced to improve the regulation of new payment systems to ensure their transparent and legal use, and clamp down on the financing of terrorist activities.

This includes aligning policies governing these systems both among governments as well as with existing anti-money laundering and counterterrorism regimes and stepped up cooperation to boost relevant prosecutorial and law enforcement capacities in the region.

Coordination is also underway in APEC to address travel-related aspects of increasing terrorist flows. It builds on cooperation between APEC members to develop ‘trusted traveler’ characteristics and support implementation of advance passenger information systems.

It also comes amid stepped up efforts to improve and broaden an APEC Regional Movement Alert System to flag the use of stolen or fraudulent passports at airport check-in in real time, secure critical infrastructure and boost supply chain emergency recovery.