Strong economic framework 'crucial' for peaceful and stable Indo-Pacific

Tokyo [Japan], May 24 : The concluding statement of the Quad summit came jointly by the Prime Minister's Office emphasising the need of strengthening peace and deepening economic engagement amongst themselves to build a free, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
This comes as the pandemic emphasized the importance of strengthening economic competitiveness and cooperation and securing critical supply chains, while stimulating job growth and improving economic opportunities, including for our workers, women, medium- and small enterprises, and our societies' most vulnerable groups.
In order to prepare our economies for the future, we are launching the process to establish the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity.
This framework is intended to advance resilience, sustainability, inclusiveness, economic growth, fairness, and competitiveness for our economies. Through this initiative, we aim to contribute to cooperation, stability, prosperity, development, and peace within the region. The Framework partners will be engaging in such discussions on various ways to strengthen economic cooperation to achieve these goals, and we invite other interested Indo-Pacific partners to join us, an official statement by Prime Minister's office read.
On the trade front, the indo-pacific countries tend to build high-standard, inclusive, free, and fair trade commitments and develop new and creative approaches in trade and technology policy that advance a broad set of objectives that fuel economic activity and investment, promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, and benefits workers and consumers, while on the supply chain front, the nations are committed to improving transparency, diversity, security, and sustainability in our supply chains to make them more resilient and well-integrated.
Moreover, by enacting and enforcing the effective and robust tax, anti-money laundering, and anti-bribery regimes in line with existing multilateral obligations, standards, and agreements to curb tax evasion and corruption in the Indo-Pacific region,
In line with our Paris Agreement goals and efforts to support the livelihood of our peoples and workers, we plan to accelerate the development and deployment of clean energy technologies to decarbonize our economies and build resilience to climate impacts. This involves deepening cooperation on technologies, mobilizing finance, including concessional finance, and seeking ways to improve competitiveness and enhance connectivity by supporting the development of sustainable and durable infrastructure and by providing technical assistance.
We are continuing to identify additional areas of cooperation based on consultations among partners to further our shared interests, with a view to advancing regional economic connectivity and integration. We look forward to jointly creating conducive environments to boost flows of commerce, trade, and investments amongst our economies, and to enhancing standards and access to opportunities for our workers, companies, and people in our combined markets, the official statement read.