The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC), in its annual report to APEC economic leaders, has given a frank assessment of the global state of play. There is no talk of an upturn, no discussion about the light at the end of the tunnel.

ABAC's members, made up of the region's leading business minds, are deeply concerned about the depressed state of the world economy, and want APEC leaders to do something about it. Paul Song, a US-based ABAC member and the CEO of Noetix Corporation, sums up the seriousness ABAC members view the current situation by comparing what is happening now to events early last century.

"In many ways, we have not seen such a disruption to so many different sectors of our economic engine since the Great Depression," he said. "Given the fact that our economies are much more linked globally than ever before, these disruptions are not isolated to a country or even a region. The need to coordinate a recovery plan amongst many countries with different political, cultural and economic priorities is real, but in practice extremely challenging.".

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