Mactan, Cebu — Finance ministers and central bank governors of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will meet separately and, later, jointly on Friday (April 7) to cap the series of conferences here on ways to further promote inclusive growth, financial stability and economic integration among members of the 10-nation regional bloc.
The separate meetings of the finance ministers and the central bank governors will start in the morning at the Shangri-La Mactan Hotel and are expected to continue up to noon. Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. will be hosting the meetings.
A business luncheon attended by both the finance ministers and the central bank chiefs will follow.
The ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Joint Meeting will commence in the afternoon, the third to be held since 2015.
A joint press conference by the finance ministers of the immediate past (Lao Republic), present (Philippines) and future (Singapore) ASEAN chairs will be held after the Joint Meeting.
Founded 50 years ago, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam into one regional bloc.
This regional group established the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), which officially commenced on Dec. 31, 2015, comprising a market of 600 million people or about eight percent of the world’s population.
ASEAN is the seventh largest economy in the world with a combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $2.5 trillion as of 2015. It also has the third largest labor pool and is the world’s fourth largest exporting region.
This year marks a milestone for the ASEAN, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary with the Philippines as host. The 2017 ASEAN theme is “Partnering for Change, Engaging the World.”
A day earlier, the finance ministers were set to exchange views on further expanding investment opportunities within the region during the 12th session of the ASEAN Finance Ministers Investors Seminar (AFMIS).
They were also scheduled to discuss challenges and opportunities for ASEAN amid the current global economic uncertainties and how the region could make growth sustainable and inclusive for its peoples.
In their April 6 meeting here, they were also set to tackle the progress of AEC, which is designed to create a single market and production base within Southeast Asia through the free flow of goods, skilled labor, services and investments among its 10 member-economies.
Dominguez, representing the Philippines as this year’s ASEAN host, and ASEAN Deputy Secretary General Lim Hong Hin were to open the AFMIS, by delivering their respective welcome remarks.
Foreign Finance Ministers Pehin Dato Abdul Rahman Ibrahim of Brunei Darussalam; Sri Mulyani Indrawati of Indonesia; Johari Abdul Ghani of Malaysia; Apisak Tantivorawong of Thailand; and Secretary of State Sokha Nguon of Cambodia, as well as other senior officials from ASEAN are taking part in the AFMIS and the series of high-level meetings at the Shangri-La Mactan Hotel.
A plenary session of the ASEAN finance ministers was scheduled in the morning of the AFMIS, followed by a networking lunch with global financial institutions and multilateral companies that have a strong presence in the region.
The official gatherings of the ASEAN finance ministers and central bank governors were preceded by a series of meetings and forums among the ASEAN finance deputies and central bank deputies on April 4-5.
An ASEAN + 3 Finance and Central Deputies Meeting with China, Japan and Korea and a separate ASEAN-US Treasury Deputies Meeting were held on April 5.
Before the ASEAN finance and central bank chiefs buckled down to work, BSP Gov. Tetangco hosted a dinner reception on April 5. Dominguez, meanwhile, was to host a gala dinner on Thursday night.
