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The Financial Secretary, Mr John C Tsang, today (September 20) attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Finance Ministers' Meeting in Bali, Indonesia.
Mr Tsang had a short conversation with the Treasurer of Australia, Mr Joe Hockey, before the Ministers' Meeting. Both sides agreed to continue to strengthen collaboration in Renminbi (RMB) business.
The Finance Ministers of APEC held five sessions of meeting today to discuss various topics, including maintaining financial stability and sustaining growth under the prevailing macroeconomic situations, enhancing trade financing to support trade activities, increasing investment in infrastructure to promote long-term economic development, and affording individuals and small-and-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) better access to financial services.
"It is important that changes to monetary policy settings by advanced economies should be carefully calibrated and clearly communicated in advance, taking into account spillover effects on other economies," said Mr Tsang at the meeting.
He considered that APEC economies should guard against excessive market volatilities, causing undue disruption to our economies. He commented that the recent market turbulence should serve as a wake-up call for all economies.
Mr Tsang was concerned about the financing capability of SME under the current economic environment. He introduced that Hong Kong, China had implemented various financing schemes to help SMEs obtain financing in the commercial lending market. He commented that the higher funding costs resulted from the evaporation of the US dollar liquidity during the global financial crisis had contributed to the disruption of trade finance in the region.
"A diversification of invoicing currencies to local currencies would help mitigate such risk. One notable development on this front is the increasing use of RMB in trade settlement in recent years," said Mr Tsang.
After the meeting, APEC Finance Ministers adopted a Joint Ministerial Statement. While recognising improvement in economic situations, Ministers considered that risks remained tilted to the downside and economic outlook suggested growth would likely be slower than desired. Ministers were concerned that the transition toward the normalisation of monetary policies would lead to volatility of financial flows and disorderly movements in exchange rates. They agreed to continue monitor financial market conditions carefully. Ministers also recognised the importance of infrastructure projects in supporting the region's growth potential and agreed to continue discussion on the public-private partnership approach of financing infrastructure projects.
Mr Tsang met the Minister of Finance of Indonesia, Dr Muhammad Chatib Basri, in the evening. Mr Tsang extended congratulations to Indonesia for successful organisation of this Ministers' Meeting. Both sides agreed to explore collaboration in RMB business and enhance bilateral trade to exploit the complementariness of two economies.
Mr Tsang will meet with the Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund, Mr Naoyuki Shinohara, tomorrow (September 21) morning and depart for Hong Kong in the afternoon.
Ends/Friday, September 20, 2013
Issued at HKT 19:41
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