NO.088

The Seventh APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting in Brunei Darussalam (9-10 September)

issued a call for appropriate increases in supplies of oil and emphasised the risks to the

world economy of oil price volatility.

There was vigorous exchange of views on progress in reform of the international

financial architecture, and the meeting noted the need for continuing structural reform of

domestic economies.

Trade liberalisation remains central to the achievement of sustainable increases in

economic growth. At the same time, the benefits of trade liberalisation can be fully

realised only with on-going structural reform, including reform of social safety nets.

Finance Ministers have undertaken a wide range of measures aimed at promoting good

governance, transparency and better prudential supervision. At the meeting they reaffirmed

their commitment to persevere with this ambitious agenda of structural reforms and

capacity building.

APEC work has helped to identify priority reforms and to facilitate progress in these

areas. At the meeting I reported on two new Australian led APEC initiatives – one to

improve the regulation of the life insurance industry in the region, and the other to

improve financial and accounting disclosure.

The Australian work in APEC last year to promote reform of insolvency regimes is now

being carried forward by Indonesia with Australian assistance. As I promised at the

previous APEC Finance Minister’s meeting in Langkawi, Malaysia, Australia has

delivered well-received corporate governance training programmes. New Zealand is now

leading work forward to set up a policy dialogue to encourage reform of corporate

governance.

New Zealand is also leading another important initiative to examine the best policies

for liberalising capital markets while maintaining stability.

APEC remains a useful forum for discussing progress in the reform of international

architecture. Canada, as chair of the G20, was able to inform regional economies of recent

developments.

The APEC Financiers Group and the APEC Business Advisory Council also gave their views

to Finance Ministers. ABAC provided a useful perspective on the promotion of international

standards in financial markets. ABAC’s made a constructive proposal for the creation

of a regional grouping of company directors to promote better corporate governance.

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

10 September 2000