Japanese

Provisional Translation

[Opening remarks:]

Minister)

Minister) Good evening, everyone. I am KATAYAMA Satsuki, Minister of Finance of Japan. I will brief you on today’s meeting. Today, under the co-chairship of the Philippines and Japan, we held the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting. The meeting lasted approximately four hours, starting at 1:30 p.m. We had a frank and constructive exchange of views on the outlook for the global and regional economies, as well as on regional financial cooperation.
I would first like to report on an overview of the discussions and their outcomes. I believe that the Joint Statement adopted at today’s meeting has been distributed to you, and that it is also available online. First, we exchanged views on the global and regional economic situation, including the impact of the situation in the Middle East. Given that ASEAN+3 depends on the Middle East for much of its crude oil and LNG, we shared the recognition that it is necessary to pay close attention to the impact on the real economy and financial markets. We also confirmed the importance of diversifying procurement sources and routes, as well as energy sources. This is intended to help avoid shortages in the supply of crude oil and petroleum-related products, at a time when supply chains across countries in the region are closely interconnected. I explained Japan’s efforts, namely the Partnership on Wide Energy and Resources Resilience Asia, or POWERR Asia, which was announced last month by Prime Minister TAKAICHI. I stated that Japan would contribute to ensuring the stability of the regional economy by implementing such support. In response, many members expressed appreciation for Japan’s efforts.
Next, regarding regional financial cooperation, we agreed on a strategic document setting out the medium- to long-term direction of the ASEAN+3 Finance Process. In addition to initiatives under the four pillars of regional financial cooperation, namely the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM); the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO); the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI); and Disaster Risk Financing (DRF), the document also includes areas for future focus, such as the integration of financial systems, including cross-border digital payments. With regard to the CMIM, amid heightened uncertainty surrounding the region, we shared the view that it is necessary to further strengthen its effectiveness so that it can be used flexibly when external financing needs arise. We also confirmed the importance of the early entry into force of the Rapid Financing Facility (RFF), whose establishment was agreed upon in 2024. AMRO marks the 10th anniversary of its establishment as an international organization this year. We expressed appreciation for the role it has played to date in contributing to regional financial and economic stability and development, and confirmed that its functions, including surveillance, support for CMIM implementation, and technical assistance, will be further strengthened under the leadership of AMRO Director/CEO WATANABE. With regard to the ABMI, we confirmed that the development of local currency bond markets in the region has substantially mitigated the double mismatch problem in financing, namely maturity and currency mismatches, a problem that was one of the factors behind the Asian Financial Crisis. On that basis, while continuing to keep bonds at the core of the initiative, and from the perspective of advancing discussions on a broader range of financial intermediation methods, we agreed to develop the ABMI into the ABFMI, or the Asian Bond and Financial Markets Initiative, under the next roadmap, which is scheduled to begin next year. With regard to DRF, we agreed on a three-year roadmap to further strengthen financial resilience against natural disasters in the region through the use of financial products such as disaster insurance, and we agreed that the ADB would serve as the permanent secretariat for this initiative. We also discussed strengthening cross-border digital payments in the region. Based on AMRO’s report, which summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of various tools such as stablecoins and digital currencies, as well as challenges to practical implementation, we plan to deepen discussions on retail and wholesale payment connectivity, as well as regulatory approaches to stablecoins.
In addition, as we did last year, we held the Fiscal Exchange and discussed issues commonly faced by fiscal authorities in each country. For the first time, we also held the Central Banking Dialogue and discussed cross-border payments.
That is all from me. Thank you very much.