On the margins of the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group on October 13th, 2018, the first Korea-Pacific Alliance Finance Ministries’ Meeting was held in Bali, Indonesia.
The meeting was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance of Korea, Dong Yeon Kim; Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, Jose Antonio Gonzalez Anaya; the Undersecretary of Finance of Chile, Francisco Moreno; the General Vice Minister of Finance of Colombia, Andrés Pardo; the Undersecretary of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico, Miguel Messmacher; and the Vice Minister of Finance of Peru, Betty Sotelo.
Bali, Indonesia (October 13th, 2018). The Deputy Prime Minister of Korea, the Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico and the Vice Ministers of Finance of the Pacific Alliance met in Bali, Indonesia. This first encounter, which was proposed by Korea, had the aim to discuss and explore further economic and financial cooperation in key areas.
The economic relationship between Korea and the Pacific Alliance countries has increased significantly during the last decade. Korea has free trade agreements in effect with Chile, Colombia, and Peru, and has shown interest to have a similar instrument with Mexico. Moreover, last July, Korea became an Associate State candidate of the Pacific Alliance.
In that context, authorities from Korea and the Pacific Alliance economies discussed areas of common interest for further cooperation, such as Digital Economy, Infrastructure, Disaster Risk Financing and Sharing Experiences of Economy Policy. Also, Korea suggested the possibility to hold encounters on a regular basis, starting next year, as a platform to exchange experiences, mutual interests, and perspectives on the current economic outlook.
The Pacific Alliance countries appreciated the interest of Korea in the work of the Finance Ministers’ Council and proposed to continue the conversations during the following months in order to foster further cooperation and to coordinate next steps.
It is worth to mention that, even though Korea’s accession to the Pacific Alliance as an Associate State is a different process, this first approach between Ministries of Finance has set the basis to move towards the strengthening of the financial and economic ties between both parties.
Finally, the Deputy Prime Minister of Korea, the Minister of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico and the Vice Ministers of Finance of the Pacific Alliance thanked the President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), Luis Alberto Moreno, for his collaboration as moderator of this meeting.
