The 12th APEC (Asia-Pacific Economy Cooperation) Fiance Ministers' Meeting (FMM) kicked off its two-day official sessions Thursday morning at the South Korean southmost resort Jeju Island.

Fiance ministers or senior finance officials from the APEC 21-member economies as well as high level representatives from Asia Development Bank, International Monetary Fund and World Bank attended the opening session of the 2005 APEC FMM at Shilla Hotel in southern Jeju Island.

This year's APEC FMM has two themes: "Free and stable movement of capital" and "Meet the challenges of aging economies." South Korean Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance and Economy Han Duck-soo delivered opening remarks, which called on APEC members to take measures to curb high oil prices, imbalance in the global economy and real estate price's surge.

"Rising demand despite supply constraints is the main cause that is pushing the oil prices up," Han pointed out, adding "speculative demand and lack of transparency in the market information" are also contributing to the consistent rise of oil prices.

The South Korean deputy prime minister urged "oil producing and consuming economies to join their efforts to bring demand and supply into balance," since high oil prices, "in a long term, undermine economic growth and deepen global uncertainties, threatening both oil producing and consuming economies." Han continued to say that global economic imbalance is another risk that APEC members face.

Shared responsibilities among the member economies were urged to resolve imbalance in the global economy.

Han also said APEC members should keep close watch on the rising real estate prices.

"Each government should closely monitor the movements of real estate prices and the macro-economy, and take necessary measures,"said Han.

"In addition, resolving obstacles to capital movements and addressing the possible challenges that would be brought by population aging are also important issues that call for out attention," stressed Han.

The South Korean deputy premier also pointed out the need for APEC economies to "develop more cooperation projects into agreements and concrete actions" to achieve the growth of the APEC and global economy.

Several closed-door sessions will be held later Thursday to discuss "Macroeconomic Developments", "Policy dialogue on free and stable movement of capital" and "Meeting the challenge of aging economies", according to the schedule distributed by the meeting's organizer.

The meeting will be concluded after adopting "Jeju declaration to meet the challenges of aging economies" on Friday.

Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing led the Chinese delegation to the meeting.

Source: Xinhua