Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) was established in 1989. APEC is an international intergovernmental organization in which all members participate as economies. We became one of the APEC members under the name of Chinese Taipei in 1991. Now it has 21 member economies and other economies are Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People's Republic of China, Hong Kong (China), Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Republic of the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Singapore, Thailand, United States of America and Viet Nam.
APEC is a flexible trade and economic forum. In APEC, decision-making is reached by consensus. Commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis. Member economies participate on the basis of open dialogue and respect for views of all participants to achieve the goal of economic prosperity in the region. The three pillars of APEC’s agenda focus on “Trade and Investment Liberalization,”“Business Facilitation,” and “Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH).” APEC members shall reduce trade and investment cost through liberalization and facilitation, and assist developing economies in capacity building by economic and technical cooperation.
With respect to APEC meetings, the Ministry of Finance participates in the Finance Ministers' Process (FMP) meetings which include Finance Ministers' Meeting, Finance Deputies' Meeting, Senior Finance Officials' Meeting and other related workshops. The Minister of Finance has been heading or dispatching a delegation to participate in the FMP meetings over the years. The host economy of APEC 2023 is the United States. To be in consistence with this year’s theme “Creating a Resilient and Sustainable Future for All,” and three priorities “Interconnected: Building a resilient and interconnected region that advances broad-based economic prosperity,” “Innovative: Enabling an innovative environment for a sustainable future,” and “Inclusive: Affirming an equitable and inclusive future for all,” the priorities of the FMP were set to be “Sustainable Finance,” “Digital Assets,” and “Modern Supply Side Economics.”
MOF Press Release of APEC 2023