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Yet this is little more than a parroting of the G-20 Summit's agenda, fostered in Pittsburgh in September. Faced with the worst global financial crisis since the 1930s, the G-20 nations, which account for about 85 per cent of the global gross domestic product, have sought to re-boost growth through stimulus spending and low interest rates, without undertaking any drastic reform.

We shall see how this lip service on the part of global leaders will help pull the world out of the recession. In spite of the signs of resumed growth, many still doubt whether it is sustainable, given the structural imbalances, huge indebtedness and financial system crisis wrecking havoc on the major economies.

A group of Asian journalists and I had a dinner meeting with Kazuo Kodama, the press secretary and director-general for press and public relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo the other day. We had a nice conversation. Kodama was quite bullish over the outcome of the Apec meeting, in which the grouping took over the task of tackling the global financial crisis and trying to put the world economy back on a growth path. Japan hopes Apec will continue to work on this new paradigm of growth, which Kodama calls an "irreversible trend", as it will host the next Apec Summit in Yokohama in 2010.

Let's examine Apec's new paradigm of growth, if not the G-20s. Re-balancing global growth is designed to address the macro-economic imbalance, which has been going on for years. "The US has been consuming too much and creating too much debt, while Japan, China and the Asean countries have been exporting to the US and saving too much. And we [Asia] use the savings to buy US treasuries to finance the US deficit. This is not sustainable," said Kodama.

On this front, Kodama is right. President Barack Obama's Asian visit to Japan, China and Singapore, in a way, marked a US retreat from its over-consumption mode. Obama put his cards on the table in his speech in Tokyo last Saturday. The US would be making a comeback to Asia through cross-Pacific partnerships. Moreover, the US would like to export more to this region, which still registers relatively strong growth compared to other parts of the world. This took place against the backdrop of a falling US dollar, while gold prices are surging.

In China, Obama's meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao was far less successful, with agreements elusive as they discussed cooperation on the economy, climate change and security.

How does Asia react to Obama's gesture, as many countries still bank on their cheap currencies to boost exports? The Asian nations are not ready to save less and spend more as yet. They still want to export more. This will complicate the efforts to re-balance global growth because both the US and the Asian countries want to increase exports.

On inclusiveness, Apec leaders vowed that they would strive for shared growth and prosperity for all. But I would argue that this is more lip service, because there hasn't been any major effort to restructure the financial system in any meaningful way to prevent a future crisis.

With the financial crisis, bankers and money managers - who benefit from government bail-outs - have become richer, while many working people on Main Street are facing hardship and unemployment. (The bankers and money managers still make money the old way: if they lose money, taxpayers will bail them out; if they make money, they pocket the profit for themselves.)

Lastly, global growth is not sustainable without addressing climate change and taking into account environmental preservation. Industries continue to plunder the world's natural resources. Again, action plans are easier talked about than implemented. Japan's new leadership under Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged to reduce CO2 emissions by 25 per cent in 2020 as compared to the 1990 level. This pledge is almost unilateral, as many countries are unwilling to make commitments ahead of the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen next month. Planet Earth is on a disastrous path to environmental destruction, yet mankind is still too concerned about economic well-being.

As I have travelled around Japan over the past 10 days, I have noticed the clear message that Japan will be working seriously on emissions control and improving the environment. Yet the effort might be too little in the face of global industrialisation. We need a serious rethink and a commitment to save this planet by sacrificing ourselves to slower growth - via Apec or non-Apec means, or by any means.