APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting discusses issues of capital movement, aging economies

The 12th APEC ( Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) Finance Ministers' Meeting (FMM) Thursday deeply discussed various issues ranging from how to secure a free and stable capital movement and how to deal with aging economies at Jeju Island, South Korea.

Finance ministers or senior finance officials from the APEC 21 member economies on Thursday attended sessions of the 2005 APEC FMM at Shilla Hotel in southern Jeju Island. The meeting started Thursday morning.

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," said a news release of the Chinese delegation to the meeting.

Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing led the Chinese delegation to the two-day meeting.

On the issue of free movement of capital among the APEC economies, finance ministers and senior finance officials pointed out that since remittance made by foreign labors became a more and more important part of the movement of international capital, APEC economies should improve the remittance service, said the release.

On the issue of aging society and economies, the meeting urged concerning economies to enforce finance reform, and enhance international cooperation on exchanging experiences over how to deal with the issue of aging economies.

Finance ministers and senior finance officials also discussed some factors that affected the APEC region's and global economy, such as imbalance economic development, continuing roaring oil price, rising interests rate in the world, being formed bubble in the real estate sector and increased trade conflicts.

"Finance ministers and senior finance officials called on international communities to take joint measures, to reinforce dialogues and cooperation to cope with these above challenges," the release said.

They also agreed to facilitate the progress of the implementation of the "Bogor Goal", which advocates APEC economies to realize freeing and opening of trade and investment.

They also called on the negotiations of the Doha Development Agenda to make tangible progress as soon as possible, the release said.

"They welcomed the recent measures taken by China and Malaysia on the foreign exchange rate," said the release.

Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing made a speech in Thursday's meeting on the latest development of China's macro economy, some economic issues in China of international concern, enhancing cooperation in finance field within the APEC region and promotion of the efficiency of the APEC FMM.

The 2005 APEC FMM is expected to be closed on Friday after adopting a declaration on meeting the challenges of aging economies.

Source: Xinhua