Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is an international forum composed of twenty-one member economies with the objective to act collectively to promote economic and technical cooperation with the Asia-Pacific region. Its purpose is "to sustain the growth and development of the region for the common good of its peoples." APEC builds on the World Trade Organization (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) principle for the progressive liberalization of trade in services through the reduction of regulatory restrictions, leading to reciprocal agreement between member economies where appropriate. It is a strategic priority of facilitating the mobility of qualified persons by developing means for the mutual recognition of skills and qualifications.

The APEC economies participating in the project have developed a mechanism by which current restrictions on the professional recognition of architects from other economies would be reduced or removed. A set of principles and operational framework for the creation of an APEC Architect Register has been agreed upon. Registration as an APEC Architect provides evidence of the achievement of professional standards that satisfy the requirements for the recognition of architects by host APEC economies.

The GATS identifies four modes of service provision, of which the third, "establishment of a commercial presence" and the fourth, "the presence of natural persons", are those that are essentially addressed by the APEC Architect framework. However, the project will have relevance for all means by which architectural services are exported.