With the 2023 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit now slated for a November finale in San Francisco, the first preliminary host nation event wrapped up Friday at the East-West Center in Manoa. Representatives of the forum’s 21 member economies discussed topics such as visitor industry issues and took in lessons on sustainability as presented by Kamehameha Schools students during the three-day meeting.

Each nation in attendance is contending with challenges touched off by the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and various energy, food security and supply chain issues.

U.S. Department of State Senior Official for APEC Matt Murray told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in an interview Friday that APEC member economies are collaborating to try to correct supply chain slowdowns and complications created by the pandemic along with the economic headwinds tied to the Ukraine invasion.

“APEC is about how can we meet this moment we are in — and we’re in a difficult moment,” said Murray. “How can we focus on the ‘C’ (in APEC) of cooperation to try and bring economies together even if we have differences?”

Speaking at a news conference held Friday, Deputy National Security Advisor for International Economics Mike Pyle said President Joe Biden had several goals for the G20 Leaders’ Summit on Bali and for APEC in the U.S. — and wanted to illustrate how developing and emerging economies are adversely affected by conflict.

“He wanted to rally the world to condemn Russia’s immoral invasion of Ukraine and for the world to acknowledge the economic costs that Russia’s war was imposing on the rest of the world,” said Pyle. The Manoa event was tailored as an opportunity for “coming together with our fellow member economies of APEC … to articulate a set of priorities and themes and goals that we want to advance for the year.”

In August 2021, Vice President Kamala Harris announced in Singapore that the U.S. would host APEC in 2023. In November, San Francisco was selected as the city that will host the APEC Economic Leaders Meeting.

In attendance at this week’s event were about 150 ambassador-level representatives and their staff from APEC 21 member economies, including leaders from China, Canada, the Russian Federation, Mexico and Japan. Additional preliminary events will be held in February, May and August before culminating in the leaders meeting in November.

Hawaii hosted the leaders summit in 2011 — a vast logistical and financial undertaking that involved nearly four years of preparation. Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a keynote address on the back patio of the East-West Center’s Jefferson Hall.

The theme for the upcoming Manoa meetings in 2023 is “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” Murray said. Describing the East-West Center as a “powerful convener of … stakeholders from around the region,” he said, it was deemed “a very important symbolic place” to hold the first host-nation event. “Nobody knows more about open free and fair trade and sustainable and inclusive economies than Hawaii.”

In addition to drilling down to expert-level discussions about financial and economic issues affecting the participating nations, Murray said the one of the primary goals of having the first meeting in Hawaii was to share the state’s expertise with member countries.

“We don’t want to just be the State Department and APEC team coming into a place. This isn’t worth anything if we’re not supporting our communities, our constituents, our people. We want to set that tone in every single place we go to around the United States this year.”

Over the event’s three days, representatives heard from a panel of women about economic empowerment, Gov. Josh Green addressed attendees and visitor industry leaders shared their backgrounds and experiences. The visitor industries of member economies were a “huge” part of the discussion, Murray said. Several economies, he said, are focused on the challenge of getting their tourism and visitor industries “right-sized and fit for purpose, so that you are able to grow your economy but you are able to do it in a green and sustainable way.”

Additionally, representatives had a chance to visit with middle schoolers at Kamehameha Schools’ Kapalama campus to learn about the school’s sustainability curriculum. Also, University of Hawaii at Manoa students from the U.S., Brunei and Papua New Guinea met with leaders to share what they envision for their economic future.

The regional economic forum was established in 1989 to create greater “prosperity for the people of the region” by promoting balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative and secure growth and by accelerating regional economic integration, according to APEC. In addition to the U.S., APEC membership includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.