APEC finance ministers to meet in Malaysia

APEC finance ministers to meet in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR (Dow Jones): Finance ministers from the Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation countries will meet in Malaysia May 15-16 to review efforts to promote safe and sustainable capital flows.

The meeting will be held on Langkawi island, in Northern Kedah state.

According to a Malaysian Finance Ministry statement issued late Wednesday, the APEC finance ministers also will review efforts to improve transparency and disclosure for private-sector institutions involved in international capital flows. These include investment banks, hedge funds and other institutional investors.

The APEC meeting will be chaired by second Finance Minister Mustapa Mohamed and will be preceded by a meeting of APEC finance and central bank deputies chaired by Aris Othman, Malaysia's secretary-general to the Treasury.

Also in attendance will be the heads of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.

At the meeting, finance ministers also are expected to respond to the various tasks assigned to them at the APEC meeting in Kuala Lumpur in November.

"As host, Malaysia looks forward to concrete and practical outcomes on key aspects relating to reforms of the international financial architecture," the Finance Ministry statement said.

APEC was established in 1989 to promote trade, investment and economic cooperation among member economies. Its finance ministers first met in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1994.

APEC groups Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Chile, Mexico and Papua New Guinea.