25 May 2006
Joint statement: 5th UK-China Financial dialogue
We, Chief Secretary Stephen Timms and Vice Minister Lou Jiwei, note the success of today’s 5th UK-China Financial Dialogue, which brought together HM Treasury and the Chinese Ministry of Finance, for productive discussions on issues of mutual interest, sharing our experience, and co-operating to push forward a common agenda on development and reform. The Dialogue has been enriched by the participation of other key stakeholders – other government departments, financial regulators, and the financial services sector.
We celebrated the success of our respective 2005 G7 and G20 Presidencies, noting the progress made last year on debt relief and financing for development, and recognising the importance of delivering on these promises to ensure debt sustainability and promote achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. In this context, China will continue its support for the UK’s International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm), and highly commends the development work done by the British Government.
We agreed on the importance of reforming the international financial institutions to ensure they provide fair voice and representation to all Members. We emphasised our commitment to making concrete progress on this issue at the forthcoming Annual Meetings in Singapore. And we discussed the challenge of global imbalances, and agreed on the need for a collective approach to resolving these.
A key objective of the Dialogue is to share policy ideas, and learn from each other’s experience. The main areas of knowledge sharing during today’s talks were: appropriate policies for handling the long term fiscal challenge of providing social services for ageing populations; and our respective approaches to the energy regulation and taxation, particularly with respect to the goals of improving energy efficiency and security.
We acknowledged the vital role a stable and well-functioning financial system plays in the economy. To this end, we stressed the importance of strengthening co-ordinated financial regulatory frameworks and improving relevant legislation, to maintain financial stability and develop healthy and competitive financial services sectors.
We reaffirmed our resolve to combat the abuse of financial systems by criminals and terrorists. Money laundering and terrorist financing threatens global political, economic and social security. We are committed to work together to counter these threats by implementing agreed international standards and encouraging enhanced international cooperation in the area of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.
The success of today’s Dialogue demonstrates the continued strength of the UK-China relationship. We look forward to further co-operation on economic and financial issues, and agree to meet again for the next round of the Dialogue in China in 2007.
Signed
Stephen Timms
Chief Secretary
HM Treasury
Lou Jiwei
Vice Minister
Ministry of Finance