The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit 2025 hosted by South Korea will place artificial intelligence and demographic shifts at the forefront of the agenda for discussion — topics that have never before taken the spotlight at the regional economic forum.

Yoon Seong-mee, chair of the 2025 APEC Senior Officials' Meeting, emphasized the urgency and significance of prioritizing cooperation on AI technologies and responding to population changes such as low birthrates and aging societies.

"Especially, AI and demographic structure are topics that have never been addressed at the APEC, while the previous APEC has covered a wide range of issues such as trade liberalization, labor and education," Yoon said.

Yoon made the remarks during a news conference following the first Senior Officials' Meeting, held from Feb 24 to March 9 in the city of Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province. The APEC summit, scheduled to be held in the same city from late October to early November under the theme "Building a Sustainable Tomorrow", will mark South Korea's first time hosting the event in 20 years, since it was last held in Busan in 2005.

"There are no fields unrelated to AI. Therefore, AI is a critically important issue with a massive impact, influencing our future across all sectors worldwide. The same applies to the issue of demographic structure," Yoon said, adding all APEC members will be affected by demographic changes in the long term, despite the varying speeds at which they encounter such challenges.

"I believe that the fact of proactively selecting these globally significant issues, which require serious consideration on an international scale, and introducing them into the APEC discussion framework already represents a major contribution on our part as host of the APEC summit," Yoon said.

The first meeting of senior officials marked the official beginning of the APEC-related schedule leading up to the summit and served as the very first opportunity to introduce Gyeongju to the official delegations of APEC members in advance, according to Yoon.

The meeting drew around 2,000 participants, including representatives from 21 APEC members as well as the APEC Secretariat, according to the Foreign Ministry of South Korea.

Yoon and Lee Ji-yoon, an APEC senior official as well as the deputy director general of international economic affairs at South Korea's Foreign Ministry, held bilateral meetings with delegations, according to the Foreign Ministry.

During the briefing, Eduardo Pedrosa, executive director of the APEC Secretariat, brushed off any worries when asked about whether concerns were raised over potential impacts of the political turbulence in South Korea for the summit.

"APEC meetings have been held under similarly changing political situations, but the APEC work has continued throughout the years. So, I think most stakeholders and experts are pretty confident that this work will go ahead," Pedrosa said at the news conference.

Pedrosa also pointed out that one of the issues brought up during this meeting was the "need to respond to new challenges that emerged from the evolving trade environment", reiterating, "We are in an evolving trade environment."

Pedrosa, however, refrained from providing a direct answer when asked by The Korea Herald whether there were concerns about a shift toward protectionism, which contradicts APEC's vision of free and open trade as the United States has imposed blanket tariffs, and whether the issue would be addressed at the APEC summit.

The Korea Herald, South Korea