APEC finance chiefs pledge flexible fiscal policies

Finance ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies pledged Wednesday to flexibly implement fiscal policies, China's state-run Xinhua News Agency reported.
The pledge comes as they seek ways to boost economic and job growth amid a slow economic period. "We reaffirm our commitments to address weakness in our economies and unleash new sources of potential growth including through new structural reform actions, and fulfilling existing reform commitments," the finance chiefs said in a joint statement released after the APEC Finance Minister's Meeting in Beijing.
The 21 APEC members, including the US, China, Japan and Russia, account for over half of the world's economic output, 40 percent of the world's population, and 46 percent of total global trade. As the engine of the world economy, the APEC region should lead the global recovery toward strong, sustainable and balanced growth, Wednesday's meeting pledged.
The finance ministers stressed the role infrastructure investment plays in realizing growth potential and meeting development goals.
"Given the large funding gap between projected infrastructure needs and limited financial resources, we call for further efforts to attract long-term financing and leverage private resource flows to fill the gap, including through public-private partnership (PPP)," the statement said. The finance ministers said they welcome the efforts of APEC members to support capacity building and project development for infrastructure PPPs.
Wednesday's meeting also discussed a range of other topics, including taxation policy reform for economic restructuring and improving financial services for regional real economy. The annual meeting came ahead of the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting to be held in Beijing on Nov. 10 and 11, which will be attended by leaders or representatives of the 21 APEC members.
APEC groups Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the US and Vietnam.