The 12th APEC ( Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Finance Ministers' Meeting (FMM) Friday concluded its two-day official sessions at the South Korean southmost resort island of Jeju, after adopting a joint statement and a joint declaration.

Finance ministers or senior finance officials from the APEC 21 member economies, as well as senior representatives from the World Bank and other international leading economic and financial organizations, attended sessions of the 2005 APEC FMM at Jeju Island.

Finance ministers and senior finance officials fully exchanged their views over this year's APEC FMM's two main themes of "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, who is also the chair of this year's APEC FMM, described the meeting as "fruitful and productive" at a joint press conference attended by all the chief delegates to the APEC FMM at the end of the meeting

The content of the Joint Ministerial Statement is mainly about the evaluation of current economic situation in the APEC region and the issues of the two main themes of the APEC FMM.

The ministers and senior finance officials evaluated the increasing level of foreign direct investment (FDI) as well as portfolio investment flows into and out of the APEC region are, in general, economically beneficial, according to the statement.

"Recognizing the contribution of free and stable capital flows in supporting economic growth, we emphasized the importance of open, well-supervised, and systematically sound financial services sectors," the statement said.

"In the context, we urge all member economies to pursue a meaningful outcome of the financial services negotiations in the Doha Development Agenda," said the statement.

The finance ministers and senior finance officials vowed to continue their efforts to promote capital account liberalization, in a manner consistent with maintaining financial stability, and to build deep, resilient and efficient capital markets including by developing institutional investor base.

They also adopted Jeju Declaration on Enhancing Regional Cooperation against the Challenges of Population Aging at the end of the FMM.

The ministers and senior officials acknowledged that population aging is a serious socio-economic challenge already experienced by some member economies.

The Jeju Declaration outlined several measures the APEC member economies are to take to cope with the issue.

"We recognize the importance of undertaking reforms of domestic markets and regulatory systems in order to achieve resilient, flexible and open economies able to deal with the challenges posed by aging and demographic change," said the declaration.

"We underscore the need to reinforce our joint efforts to maintain medium, and long term fiscal sustainability and to promote sound pension and health care system," the declaration said.

The finance ministers and senior officials also agreed to form an expert group, consisting of around twenty experts from APEC member economies, to explore ways to cope with the challenges of population aging and possible policy recommendations, in cooperation with the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and the international financial institutions, and to report their findings at the next Finance Ministers' Meeting in 2006.

The 13th round of APEC FMM is slated to be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Sept. 7-8, 2006.

Source: Xinhua