APEC Finance Ministers’ Agenda: Economic Recovery
Issued by the APEC Finance Ministers’ Process
Moscow, Russia, 28 August 2012 – APEC Finance Ministers will gather this week in Moscow as part of a cluster of meetings to promote resilient and
effective financial infrastructure in the Asia-Pacific region to enable greater, more inclusive economic growth.
The APEC Finance Ministerial Meeting will take place on Thursday to strengthen policy collaboration across member
economies. It will be preceded by a planning and technical meeting of APEC senior finance officials Tuesday and an
assembly of APEC Finance and Central Bank Deputies on Wednesday.
Regional assessments of global economic and financial developments, and the advancement of initiatives that encourage
the reduction of debt and deficits, increased demand, structural reform and free trade to reinvigorate the world economy
will be among the issues considered.
Additional steps to improve financial education in the region and better ensure strong, sustainable and balanced growth
will also be in the spotlight.
“Financial literacy is an essential skill for everyone in the 21st century and an important component of economies’
efforts to effectively support economic and financial stability, inclusive development and the well-being of individuals
and families,” said Andrey Bokarev, Chair of the APEC Senior Finance Officials' Meeting.
“For financial education initiatives to be effective and sustainable, they need to be appropriately integrated in a
comprehensive economy-wide strategy and tailored to each economies’ circumstances, priorities and needs,” he explained.
Policies that support integrated disaster risk management financing will furthermore be on the agenda. The goal is to
mitigate the high economic costs incurred by many APEC economies due to natural catastrophic events which have increased
in frequency in recent years.
“The active exchange of knowledge and best practices is particularly important to promoting innovative disaster
responses among financial authorities,” said Bokarev.
Helping to drive the conversation in Moscow will be representatives from business as well as organizations such as the
World Bank, International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank and Organization of Economic Cooperation and
Development.
This week will mark the 18th meeting of APEC Finance Ministers’ who have gathered every year since 1994 to exchange
views and information on regional macroeconomic and financial developments and on domestic and regional policy
priorities.
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Additional details about APEC meetings, events, projects and publications can be found at www.apec.org. You can also follow APEC on Twitter and join us on Facebook.
ENDS