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Enhancing the Capacity of Developing Economies in APEC on Regulatory
Regimes to Support Liberalisation of Financial Services in the WTO Doha Round
Preparatory
Questions and Pre-Reading for Participants
Introduction
The purpose of this note is to provide initial comments about work we expect participants to do prior to their arrival in Melbourne and the start of the Training Program. There are two elements to this:
- Preparatory Work: For the Training Program you will be asked to provide input regarding issues from your perspective. We suggest some issues that maybe considered below. It is requested that this information be provided prior to the commencement of the Training Program. In particular, it is requested that each country provides, in electronic format, the following by Tuesday 14 November 2006:
- Discussion and commentary on issues currently being faced from the perspective of the potential liberalisation of the financial services in that country.
We will then review this input and emerging themes will be considered for emphasis, especially during Workshop sessions in the Training Program
- Pre-Reading: A number of documents are provided which will provide you with some background and useful information. It is expected that participants will have reviewed these documents prior to the start of the Training Program.
- These items are listed below.
Preparatory Work – Review of Issues
This session will use information regarding the issues currently being faced in their country as provided by the participants representing each country.
Following are some suggestions as to the sort of issues that may be considered.
- What are the key areas of concern or impediments with regard to the risks of liberalisation of the financial services sectors in your country?
- As they apply to the industry
- As they apply to the supervisory agencies
- What are the key areas of opportunities with regard to the risks of liberalisation of the financial services sectors in your country?
- As they apply to the industry
- As they apply to the supervisory agencies
- What issues and concerns are there from your perspective in the context of negotiations with other countries and addressing their objectives, especially when these objectives may not necessarily be considered to be consistent with your national needs or objectives?
- What current initiatives are underway and what are the drivers of these initiatives?.
- Are there specific issue or concerns you would like to see addressed during the Training Program?
Note that the key purpose of this preparatory work is help identify areas which may be of general concern to countries. .
As noted above, we request your responses and comments to be provided, electronically, to the APEC Study Centre by Tuesday 14 November 2006.
Pre-Readings
There are 11 readings, listed below, with brief comments explaining their relevance to the Training Program:
This report concludes that there are important benefits to domestic economies and to domestic financial service competitors when liberalized markets allow foreign investment. These benefits include improvements in capitalization, management techniques, business practices, and product development. These results are based on a statistical analysis of direct investment in financial services in APEC economies and an in-depth analysis of four case economies.
Implications for policymakers as they deliberate financial market liberalization are that the expansion of the benefits outlined in this report depends on:
This framework provides a high level, non prescriptive and coherent check list of issues for consideration by governments undertaking domestic reform, regional co-operation or multinational dialogue seeking to create an environment that is attractive to both foreign and domestic investors and enhances the benefits of investment activity to the society,
This summary provides context for the information provide in the following Pre-Readings 4, 5 and 6.
This checklist is proposed for use by economies in assessing and evaluating the quality of financial services offers in the Doha negotiations.
A set of guiding principles as seen from a business perspective which may used as a guide by policy makers in assessing the quality of investments environments and the policies that may be considered in addressing weaknesses. These principles may be useful also to business in evaluating direct investment opportunities. These are divided into two main groups:
- Basic requirements: Those a potential investor will generally want to see met in the initial stages of consideration of investing in a foreign market
- Specific requirements: Those that inhibit the willingness of an investor to seriously consider an investment or inhibit the ability of the investor to operate efficiently and effectively in a market.
The set of objectives provided are intended to help WTO Members consider the scheduling of meaningful GATS commitments.
Jules Gribble and Ken Waller
Academic Co-ordinators |
