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.