I’m excited to be in Lima, Peru for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Week. Google has long been a strong supporter of APEC and we’re deeply committed to expanding the benefits of technological progress — and in particular, artificial intelligence — to the nearly 3 billion people of this fast-growing region.

In his recent speech to the UN, our CEO Sundar Pichai discussed AI’s historic potential to accelerate broad-based economic growth, as well as the major investments we’re making in digital tools and infrastructure. Nowhere is that more true than across APEC economies, where we are building the first-ever intercontinental subsea cables that connect Asia Pacific and South America, and Australia and Africa. We’re also linking our AI infrastructure investments globally to a $120 million AI Opportunity Fund to empower workers and students and close the digital divide.

What has always distinguished APEC from other global fora is its focus on public-private partnerships. In no sector are partnerships more critical or impactful than technology. That’s why at last year’s APEC meeting, we released the AI Opportunity Agenda to demonstrate how governments, companies, and civil society can work together to capture AI’s historic economic potential. AI can be a catapult for economies to drive competitiveness and national development, and today we’re sharing a top-level brief on the progress we’re already seeing in AI Pioneers: How APEC Economies are Seizing the AI Opportunity.

This new brief shares steps governments can take to attract AI investment, including:

1. Creating a supportive environment for investment in AI infrastructure, including cloud, subsea cables, compute capacity, and data.
2. Ensuring that workers across all sectors of the economy are prepared to use AI, including through new approaches to workforce training and innovative deployment of AI across the public sector, traditional industries and small businesses.
3. Crafting regulatory and legal frameworks to spur innovation and AI-driven competitiveness, prevent regulatory fragmentation, and ensure AI helps benefit everyone.

We are grateful to Peru for hosting APEC this year. As Google marks our 14th year in the country, to help accelerate digital transformation, Google.org is awarding a grant of $560,000 to Kodea, a non-profit that will help 50,000 teachers and students in Peru’s public schools achieve AI literacy and benefit from the rising tide of technological progress. And to help celebrate Peru’s heritage, Google Arts & Culture is launching a new collection with Peru’s National Library to celebrate the Wonders of Peru.

APEC's theme this year is “Empower. Include. Grow.” As leaders take up that mantle in Peru this week, we’re proud to be contributing to a forward-looking agenda around AI, economic growth and competitiveness.