The 17th APEC Future Education Forum (AFEF) and the 19th International ALCoB Conference were held from 28 September (Tuesday) to 1 October (Friday) in a virtual manner. The annual forum and conference serve as an invaluable opportunity to discuss future directions of education and human resources development in the Asia-Pacific region. Since 2005, the forum and conference have served their role as the largest and longest thematic meeting in the APEC Human Resources Development Working Group (HRDWG). The 2021 forum and conference have gathered 780 participants from 20 APEC member economies, guest economies and international institutions. Under the theme “Strengthening lifelong competencies and skills development for individuals’ career, education, training, and life cycles”, the forum and conference reflected the current educational agenda from 21 APEC member economies and other international organizations such as G20, UNESCO. As a way forward, the forum and conference speakers recommend APEC to 1) consider individual and industrial needs for curriculum development, 2) expand lifelong learning policies and practices at both domestic and international level and 3) develop a public-private partnership to prepare its future talents with adequate competencies. This review explains the 17th AFEF and the 19th International ALCoB Conference background, summary and outcomes. The review also briefs on collective actions member economies can take as future steps to continue the forum and conference discussions.

The enterprise life cycle derived from the product life cycle consists of introduction, growth, maturity and decline. The enterprise tries to reach the growth stage early and stay at the maturity stage stably through expanding its businesses and investing for the new technology. The public enterprise is not different but its life cycle is more prone to be affected by the national development and policy. A typical example can be found in the case of the quasi market SOC public enterprise which spends massive amount of fund to provide social infrastructure. After the fulfillment of its mandated mission it is exposed to the pressure of a merger or a closure usually because large portion of the debt is directly linked to the national financial stability and credit ratings. This research is focused on the variables that influence the life cycle of the quasi market SOC public Enterprise for its future competitiveness is in connection with its normalization, advancement and rationalization. In this respect, categorical variables system centering on public characteristics and profitability drew eight categorical variables such as policy outcomes, public benefit, finance and business values etc.