The idea of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group was firstly publicly broached during a speech in Seoul, South Korea, on 31 January 1989 by Bob Hawke, Australia’s prime minister of the time. Ten months later, 12 Asia-Pacific economies met in Canberra to establish Apec.
The grouping now has 21 members that represent more than 50% of global GDP and are home to about 2.7 billion people, or 40% of the world’s population.
