The Finance Minister, Dr. Su, Jain-Rong attended the 2021 APEC Virtual Informal Ministerial Meeting with ABAC Business Leaders hosted by New Zealand Minister of Finance Grant Robertson on June 25, 2021. The delegates led by Minister Su included senior officials from the Ministry of Finance, the Financial Supervisory Commission, and the National Development Council.
Minister Su highlighted that facing the impacts resulting from the pandemic, Taiwan, like most economies, has been adopting expansionary fiscal policies, implementing a raft of economic relief and stimulus measures in the wake of the outbreak. The ratio of outstanding debt with a maturity of one year or more to the nominal GDP in 2021 is projected to be 29.4%, indicating that the fiscal buffers remain sufficient to respond to the pandemic. Through this experience, he called on APEC economies to pay more attention to the financial management of disaster risk and to build fiscal resilience, so as to respond well to any economic shocks brought about by similar pandemics or natural disasters in the future.
The Ministry of Finance stated that this meeting was an innovation of New Zealand, the host economy this year. It made best use of the digital format to bring together finance ministers and business leaders from across the APEC region for a discussion regarding important policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic whether from the government or business side. The discussion focused on the effects of COVID-19, the important and impactful policies, as well as the key elements for a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery.
New Zealand Minister Robertson noted that partnerships among government, business, and civil society are critical to the Asia-Pacific region’s response to COVID-19 and will continue to play an important role in the longer-term recovery. New Zealand ABAC Chair Rachel Taulelei stated that the aim of this meeting was to discuss the importance of sustainable and inclusive recoveries, and that the governments and businesses should work together to achieve this aim. Most of the attendees also expressed the need to rebuild supply chains and gradually open borders so as to achieve the expectation of free movement of people and goods . Moreover, they identified that the sustainable and inclusive recovery should move towards digitalization, innovation, carbon reduction, and elimination of social inequality, and that economies should prepare for future risks such as climate change, natural disasters, and pandemics.
The Ministry of Finance stressed that this meeting enabled the governments and business leaders to gain a deeper understanding of the current and future challenges and opportunities by exchanging their opinions to show the importance of the government and the private sector working together to realize sustainable and inclusive growth goals. Finance ministers and business leaders will continue to discuss these related issues at the Finance Ministers’ Meeting in October.
Contact person: Ms. Yu- Hsuan Wang, Section Chief.
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