Finance and foreign affairs ministers detail APEC 2019 Agenda in financial matters

PRESS RELEASE from the Ministry of Finance of Chile

October 11, 2019

(Please note that this is a machine translation)

The Minister of Finance, Felipe Larraín, and the Chancellor, Teodoro Ribera, together with the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Francisco Moreno, and the SOM Chair of APEC Chile 2019, Matthias Francke, detailed today the activities that will mark the financial track of the APEC Agenda 2019, which began on Wednesday October 9 and will last until Tuesday October 15.

“This is a very important milestone. It is an excellent opportunity to show our commitment to multilateralism and international integration, especially considering the pillars that Chile is promoting in APEC in the financial area:

• Boosting integration into financial markets through the digital economy
• Promote financial inclusion in the digital age
• Strengthen the financial management of natural disaster risks ”.

He added that the Government is optimistic about the development of the APEC agenda this year, one of the most ambitious that has been generated in recent years, and how it will contribute to achieving sustainable and inclusive growth.

Foreign Minister Teodoro Ribera stressed that the Meeting of Finance Ministers will be one of the last APEC Chile 2019 ministries and highlighted the work after this important meeting.

“Thousands of people have worked in these meetings and thousands of them have come from abroad. With this we reaffirm the value of open international trade subject to rules. In moments of international uncertainty, Chile is committed to opening new markets and diversifying its products, ”said the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

He stressed that APEC groups 21 economies and 51% of the investments that take place in Chile come from APEC.

Large schedule

This Wednesday, the activities of the financial track began with a seminar on “Credit Reporting Systems”, which was attended by more than 50 delegates from APEC economies, as well as commissioners and representatives of the Commission for the Financial Market , executives of the Central Bank and BancoEstado, academics and national entrepreneurs.

The agenda will continue this afternoon and tomorrow at the Sheraton Hotel, with the "Seminar on environmental, social and governance criteria in financial markets."

This is an activity organized by the Ministry of Finance together with the Commission for the Financial Market, CMF, and which will have more than 150 attendees from the local and international financial world.

On Sunday, October 13, there will be two instances of technical work: the Meeting of “Delegates of Finance Ministers” and the Meeting of “Representatives of Finance Ministries”, sessions in which discussions of the work carried out during this year under the presidency will be closed of Chile and, in addition, the negotiation of the “Joint Declaration of Ministers” will be concluded.

The Delegates meeting will be led by the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, Francisco Moreno.

The Head of the Treasury said that on Monday, October 14, the agenda will begin with the seminar “Financial Management of Natural Disasters” that our country is organizing with the support of the World Bank as co-host. “This is an issue that we have especially promoted and corresponds to one of Chile's priorities as a host economy 2019,” said Minister Felipe Larraín.

He added that, as our country is highly vulnerable to natural disasters, this is a topic of great importance, in which Chile has been working for years, both within APEC and within the framework of the Pacific Alliance. "I want to remember the pioneer Catastrophic Bond, which we place with great success in the markets within the framework of the Pacific Alliance," said the Minister.

On Monday at noon the activities of the “Group of Finance Ministers” officially begin, with a lunch and a closed meeting, where only the Ministers of the 21 economies will participate.

That day the day will end with an official dinner of APEC Finance Ministers and participating delegates.

On Tuesday, October 15, the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting will continue at the Sheraton Hotel, in which Minister Larraín, in his capacity as Head of the Chilean Treasury, will chair the debates as host.