The Sixth ASEM Finance Ministers' Meeting (FMM) of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) opened on Sunday in the northern China port city of Tianjin. The following are the theme and agendas of the meeting:

Theme: Strengthening ASEM Economic and Financial Cooperation.

Agenda 1: Discuss global macro-economic situation so as to promote view-exchanges among ASEM finance ministers on Asia-Europe

macro-economic issues of strategic significance, with emphasis placed on global economic imbalance and challenges to sustainable

development of the world economy such as oil price hike, interest rate rise and related policies.

Agenda 2: Discuss global development problem in a bid to promote Asia-Europe dialogues on the issue of development. Finance ministers will deliberate the progress in fulfilling Asia-Europe millennium development goals, and discuss challenges to the millennium development goals as well as related policies.

Agenda 3: Strengthen Asia-Europe economic and financial cooperation through specific activities, and explore new ways to enhance Asia-Europe long-term cooperation. Finance ministers will discuss four important contents of the Tianjin Initiative, including the Asia-Europe trust fund, ASEM capacity building, follow-up activities of the report by the ASEM working panel on closer economic partnership, and establishment of an ASEM Contingency Dialogue Mechanism for Emergent Economic and Financial Events.