Deputy finance ministers of APEC discuss exchange rate
Deputy finance ministers of APEC discuss exchange rate
JAKARTA (JP): The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) deputy finance ministers discussed the effects of excessive exchange rate movement on trade and investment in the region yesterday in preparation for next month's conference of finance ministers.
The deputy ministers also discussed problems associated with the movement of short term capital between APEC's member economies and domestic resource mobilization of finance infrastructure.
Jusuf Anwar, the secretary general of Indonesia's Ministry of Finance, explained that all the topics will be further discussed in the meeting of APEC finance ministers, scheduled to be held in Bali on April 15 and April 16.
President Soeharto is expected to open the two-day Bali conference.
"All the topics discussed here are 'topics of the day' in the world's finance sector," Jusuf told journalists.
Yesterday's meeting, attended by 59 delegates from APEC's 18 member economies and a number of observers, also formulated the agenda for next month's meeting.
Jusuf noted that the topic of exchange rates, first proposed by Indonesia during last November's APEC ministerial meeting in Jakarta, was brought up at APEC's senior official meeting in Fukuoka last month. "It was decided in Fukuoka to discuss the exchange rate topic in a professional manner," Jusuf said.
Meanwhile, Dahlan Sutalaksana, an expert advisor to the minister of finance, said that discussions on problems associated with the movement of short term capital among the forum's member economies are important especially to avoid rushes on strong currencies in some member economies.
Jusuf said that Indonesia will recommend ways of improving cooperation among member economies to monitor world monetary developments.
He hinted that the meeting sounded out possibilities of expanding domestic resource mobilization to finance infrastructure development, through, for example, domestic capital markets.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and the United States. (rid)