APEC Senior Finance Officials Meeting opens in Philippines

The two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Senior Finance Officials' Meeting (SFOM) opened on Thursday in northern Philippine province of Bataan, focusing on measures to meet the goals of the Cebu Action Plan (CAP), which will be launched in August.

Philippine National Treasurer Roberto Tan, in his welcome speech, spelled out the CAP's four pillars: promoting financial integration, advancing fiscal transparency and policy reform, enhancing financial resiliency, and accelerating infrastructure development and financing.

"These four pillars can serve as a means of support for continued economic growth and prosperity in the region. Financial integration in the Asia Pacific can drive greater trade across the region," Tan said.

"It is therefore reasonable to claim that continuing our work on the CAP and ensuring it as a part of the FMP (Finance Ministers ' Process) agenda, provides the FMP with a role in relation to the APEC's primary goal."

Tan said that since the APEC meeting in Clark, Pampanga, last January, and as the SFOM is reconvened, the drawing up of the CAP has made some progress, including refinements in the Plan's pillars; the identification of timeframes in achieving the CAP initiatives; and the recognition of its flexibility, which future FMP hosts could use as a framework for setting their agenda.

"We especially enjoin APEC economies to move with us in our CAP initiatives and deliverables, as we prepare our outputs to be presented at the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting," he said.

He also encouraged APEC economies to continue their support for the CAP as a roadmap guiding the FMP, in carving out a role in the efforts of the APEC to foster a prosperous Asia-Pacific region. Endi