By DPA,
Beijing : Asian and European Union (EU) leaders Saturday called for the international community to act quickly and decisively at a conference here to tackle the global financial crisis.
“Lessons should be learned from the financial crisis, the responsibilities should be clarified for governments, companies and supervision respectively,” Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told reporters at the close of the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
In a joint statement, the 16 Asian and 27 EU leaders said they recognised that “although structural reforms and sound macroeconomic policies have increased the resilience of both Europe and Asia against the global financial turmoil, the global economic slowdown and persistently high commodity prices, both regions are increasingly being affected by the worsening global environment”.
“They agreed that long-term stability of the global and regional financial markets is key to sustainable economic growth of both regions,” the statement said.
“They welcomed the consensus on the necessity of strong and coherent policy responses to recent economic difficulties and mutual cooperation among ASEM partners in the areas of economic integration, infrastructure finance and microfinance,” it said.
The Asian and EU leaders issued a joint statement late Friday committing to comprehensive reform of global financial systems.
They urged the international community to “continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation and take effective and available economic and financial measures in a comprehensive way to restore market confidence, stabilise global financial markets and promote global economic growth”.