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Ha Noi, Viet Nam
7-8 September 2006

Annex A: Updated Strategic Goals of the APEC Finance Ministers' Process 
and Hanoi Medium-Term Agenda

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Updated Strategic Goals of the APEC Finance Ministers' Process 

With a view to enhancing the Finance Ministers' Process (FMP) to complement the APEC Leaders' Process, we, the Finance Ministers of the APEC economies, reviewed the FMP's strategic goals, taking into consideration the evolution of APEC's activities, and the dynamic changes in the international and regional economic and business environment. 

Recognizing the APEC principles of voluntarism, consensus-based decision-making, flexibility, differentiated timetables for developed and developing economies and pathfinder initiatives, as well as the strengths and unique characteristics of the FMP, we agreed to promote sound and credible policies to achieve the following set of updated strategic goals:

• Sustainable, equitable, and broadly-based growth and development in the APEC region; 
• Macroeconomic stability in the APEC region; 
• Prudent public finance management; 
• Good corporate governance; 
• Stable and efficient financial markets; 
• Greater economic cooperation, integration, and openness among APEC economies; and
•  Facilitation of economic and technical cooperation within the region in pursuit of the above goals. 

We also agreed that there is value in conducting medium-term reviews of all aspects of FMP activities, ranging from strategic goals (if necessary) to policy initiatives, every three to five years. In this regard, we also endorsed a framework, including procedures, components, and criteria for the medium‑term review.

Hanoi Medium-Term Agenda for the APEC Finance Ministers' Process

In pursuit of the strategic goals of the FMP, we, the Finance Ministers of the APEC economies, recognized that individual and common interests should be respected. We also acknowledged that a medium-term agenda covering possible priority policy areas is essential for developing policy themes and other activities for the FMP to provide member economies and other stakeholders with a consistent, focused and longer-term planning framework and outlook. With a view to enhancing the FMP's effectiveness and efficiency, we agreed on the Hanoi Medium-Term Agenda which provides the following possible priority policy areas:

• Public finance management: promoting efficiency and sustainability in public finance; good fiscal management, including fiscal reform, fiscal decentralization, and fiscal risk management. 
• Corporate governance and development: encouraging the adoption of best practice in corporate governance; and strengthening the legal frameworks for corporations including insolvency regulations. 
• Financial sector and capital market development: financial sector reform; financial services liberalization; securities (including bonds) markets development; SME financing; financial crises prevention and resolution; remittance systems (formal and informal); money laundering and terrorist financing. 
• Macroeconomic development, including fiscal and monetary policy. 
• Emerging challenges such as the economic consequences of aging, health pandemics, and developments in energy and raw materials markets. 

Based on the medium-term agenda, we encouraged:

• Policy themes to be selected from a set of policy areas provided by the medium-term agenda. 
• Multi-year horizons to enhance more focused discussion and continuity across years. 
• New initiatives that would be based on policy areas set out in the medium-term agenda. 
• The FMP policy agenda be developed taking account of the work programs of other fora and other parts of APEC, including the Economic Committee and the Committee on Trade and Investment, and recognizing the advisory role of ABAC, to ensure complementarity of themes and avoid unnecessary duplication with other fora and across APEC.

In order to make the medium-term agenda practical and effective, host economies may, in consultation with other members, propose policy themes complementing the medium-term agenda to address the newly arising issues/emerging challenges in the region or meeting common interests in domestic policy reform.