APEC Executive Dialogue on Finance and Dialogue with APEC Finance Ministers in parallel to the APEC Finance Ministers’ Meeting (FMM) was held in Lima, Peru, on October 14-15, 2016. The Ministers place great importance in collaboration with the private sector. Three platforms for public-private cooperation whose management the Ministers have entrusted to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) – the Asia-Pacific Financial Forum (APFF), the Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Partnership (APIP) and the Asia-Pacific Forum on Financial Inclusion – have been assigned important responsibilities to advance several initiatives under the Cebu Action Plan.

This Executive Dialogue focused on identifying practical ways forward and concrete actions that public and private sectors and multilateral institutions in collaboration with each other can undertake in coming months to achieve tangible progress. Discussions focused on three priority areas of the Cebu Action Plan, Infrastructure, access to finance and disaster risk financing and insurance. The Roundtable, where the private sector discussed these issues in detail, were followed by the Dialogue, where Ministers and the private sector can identify concrete actions to be taken.

APEC 2015 Peru official website
APEC Finance Minister Process website

At the beginning of the roundtable, Mr Hiroyuki Suzuki, Vice Chairman, Nomura Research Institute; Chair, ABAC Finance and Economic Working Group (FEWG) and Asia-Pacific Financial Forum (APFF) delivered key messages of the 2016 ABAC Report to Finance Ministers.

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2016 ABAC Report to Finance Ministers (via National Center for APEC)

Mack served as a panelist in the Session 1: FINANCING INFRASTRUCTURE TO ACHIEVE SUSTAINED GROWTH, moderated by Mr Peter Raymond, Global Leader, Capital Projects and Infrastructure, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

After hearing an overview presentation by Mr Takahiro Yasui, Head, Special Projects and Outreach Unit, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). there were three panel discussions as follows.

Panel discussion A: Building the long-term investor base for infrastructure
• Makoto Okubo, General Manager, International Affairs, Nippon Life Insurance Company
• Ms Vanessa Wang, Vice Chair, Hong Kong Retirement Scheme Association
• Ms Kashi Lau, Vice Chair, Hong Kong Trustees’ Association, and Managing Director & CEO, BCT Group
• Mr Francisco Garces, Member of the Board, Banco de Chile

Panel discussion B: Financing Infrastructure through capital markets
• Mr Mark Austen, CEO, Asia Securities Industry & Financial Markets Association (ASIFMA)
• Mr Renzo Barbieri, General Manager, Equilibrium
• Ms Yahire Martes, Assistant General Counsel, International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA)
• Mr Chikahisa Sumi, Director, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Panel discussion C: Building a pipeline of bankable infrastructure projects
• Mr Robert Milliner, Senior Advisor for Internatinoal Affairs, Wesfarmers Limited; Co-Chair, ABAC Finance and Economics Working Group
• Ms Mar Beltran, Senior Director, Global Infrastructure Hub
• Ms Camilo Nicanor Carrillo Purin, Director, General, Private investment Policy and Promotion Division, Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Peru
• Mr Christophe Dossarps, CEO, Sustainable Infrastructure Foundation

Mack made a presentation regarding an overview of the APFF Work on expanding the region’s long-term investors base, with particular focus on regulatory and accounting issues, which was followed by Ms Vanessa Wang, who summarized pension/protection and infrastructure/investment standpoints, and Ms Kashi Lau, and Mr Francisco Garces, who described cases in Hong Kong and Chile, respectively.

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Key issues in expanding the region’s long-term investors base

Mack also made introductory remarks on Infrastructure Finance in the dialogue over lunch with APEC Finance Ministers on the following day, emphasizing the importance of holistic policy discussions across the sectors/economies and long-term oriented regulatory requirements.

2016 APEC JOINT FINANCE MINISTERIAL STATEMENT issued on 15 October includes the following paragraph, which is important to us.
“We commend ABAC for its contributions in 2016 for the implementation of the CAP, including the activities undertaken in the Asia-Pacific Financial Forum (APFF) and the Asia-Pacific Forum on Financial Inclusion. We welcome ABAC’s report and recommendations on access to finance, infrastructure investment, capital markets, and health and disaster risk financing. We encourage relevant authorities to collaborate with the private sector in advancing them in 2017.”

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2016 APEC JOINT FINANCE MINISTERIAL STATEMENT (via APEC)