Apec agrees anti-recession measures

The finance ministers want trade and investment to combat poverty

Finance ministers from 21 Pacific rim economies have agreed to reduce trade and investment barriers in order to beat back the threat of a world recession.

Apec members:

Australia

Brunei

Canada

China

Chile

Hong Kong

Indonesia

Japan

South Korea

Malaysia

Mexico

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Peru

The Philippines

Russia

Singapore

Taiwan

Thailand

The United States

Vietnam

"Trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation will increase investor confidence, attract capital to the region, stimulate growth and reduce poverty," the finance ministers from Asia, Latin America and the US said in a joint declaration on Sunday.

"We reaffirm our commitment to enhanced macroeconomic policy dialogue and cooperation to tackle the current economic difficulties, and to build a strong foundation for sustained and broad-based growth in the Apec region and the rest of the world," they said at the end of a two-day meeting in the Chinese city of Suzhou.

Economic slump

This weekend's meeting was held against a background of faltering economic growth in both Japan and the US.

Weak growth in these countries is bad news for all the Apec countries because a downturn there quickly spreads as they cut back on imports from Asian, Latin American and other countries.

But the meeting in China was hailed as a turning point.

"Everybody's confidence is stronger than before," Chinese finance minister Xiang Huaicheng said following the meeting.

"We can already roughly estimate when the slowdown will reach a bottom and then recover."

The Apec meeting of finance ministers preceded an Apec summit of national leaders in Shanghai next month.

A parallel Apec summit of senior financiers called for the finance ministers to "create a level playing field for competition within the private sector".

"While it is understood that the governments will need to adjust policy to meet market conditions, they should make significant regulatory adjustment as transparent a process as possible and in close coordination with the financial industry," said the secretary general of the Apec financiers group, Xu Jiasheng.