Finance Minister Jin Renqing on Friday expressed his hope that Germany, which presides the G-8 meetings in 2007, will push forward cooperation between the industrialized nations and developing countries including China.

 

Jin and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck met over Sino-German relations, global trade and financial markets on the sidelines of the finance ministers and bank chiefs meeting of G-7 nations in the industrial city of Essen.

 

Both Jin and Steinbrueck stressed the need of strengthening cooperation between China and Germany, the two globally influential economies, in macro-economic policy, international economic issues and financial and monetary policies, according to the Chinese delegation.

 

Both sides agreed that such cooperation is not only conducive to the Sino-German partnership with global responsibility, but also helpful to the development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the European Union.

 

Finance ministers and central bank chiefs from the Group of Seven industrialized nations opened their meeting on Friday night to focus on the development of capital markets in emerging market economies and other world economic issues.

 

The two-day meeting, presided over by Steinbrueck, will focus on central issues of fiscal policy, including consolidating macroeconomic stability, the role of hedge funds in the stability of international financial markets.

 

Another important topic is the Doha Round of trade talks, which began in 2001 and was in an impasse due to disputes on farm subsidies.

 

Jin attended the meeting as a guest. Russia, despite its membership in the Group of Eight, remains to be a guest at the meeting because G-7 members believe Russia's economic and financial system does not fix in theirs.

 

The ministers from G-7, which comprises the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, met with their counterparts from the five developing nations -- China, Mexico, South Africa, India and Brazil.

 

The finance chiefs discussed setting up bond markets in the developing economies using their domestic currencies to try to avoid financial crisis.

 

They also talked about the promotion of growth and the fight against poverty by effecting improvements in the public finance sector of developing countries, and fiscal policy for the promotion of energy efficiency and of an energy strategy increasingly reliant on renewable energies.

 

Steinbrueck, whose country holds the presidency of G-8, said earlier in a television interview on Friday that there should be a registration of all the highly speculative funds that operate with foreign capital.

 

He urged hedge funds managers to show greater awareness of the political consequences of their dealings. "The result is a serious financial crisis. This cannot be ruled out," he said.

 

The meeting in Essen is one of several meetings that will lead to the G-8 summit in the German Baltic Sea resort of Heiligendamm.

 

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2007)