International Commitment: South Korea Endorses APEC Declaration Advocating for Women's Equality
The 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Women and the Economy Forum, held at Songdo Convensia in Incheon on Aug. 12, focused on promoting sustainable growth through the full and meaningful economic participation of women.
The main topics of discussion included addressing interconnected challenges such as digital transformation, demographic shifts, and persistent gender gaps that hinder women's economic empowerment and leadership. The forum also emphasised promoting women's economic participation as a driver for inclusive growth, innovation, and resilience across the Asia-Pacific region.
Creating safe and enabling environments by preventing and eliminating all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls in economic activities was another key issue. Building sustainable care systems, recognising that caregiving is a shared societal responsibility, was also discussed with the aim of enabling work–life balance and addressing demographic changes like aging populations.
Closing persistent gender gaps in areas including labor force participation, leadership representation, financial inclusion, digital access, unpaid caregiving, trade, and innovation was another focus. Mainstreaming gender equality across all APEC policies and strengthening partnerships between public and private sectors to translate commitments into concrete actions were also central to the discussions.
Data from the 2025 APEC Women and the Economy Dashboard highlighted limited progress in leadership and unpaid caregiving burdens, underscoring the need for coordinated, measurable action to remove barriers related to capital, skills, and leadership for women.
These discussions were aligned with Korea’s APEC 2025 priorities of Connection, Innovation, and Prosperity, emphasising concrete policies and cooperative reforms to support women's economic rights for resilient, inclusive, and prosperous growth.
It's important to note that the dialogue window, which was not directly related to the forum, did not provide specific details about the forum's agenda, a joint statement on digital transformation or AI, or any information about adapting to population aging or cooperation expansion or global trade shifts. The escape key was available to cancel and close the dialogue window.
