CANADA and Hong Kong are agreed that finance ministries should closely monitor the development of financial instruments to prevent excessive currency volatility, says a visiting Canadian minister. Canadian Finance Minister Paul Martin said there had been discussions on capital flows during his meeting with the Hong Kong business community and Hong Kong Monetary Authority executives. Mr Martin said continued reform of international financial institutions was needed to solve the continuing problem of currency volatility. 'The answer lies foremost in greater transparency of information as provided by individual countries,' he said. 'Financial information must be provided on a timely basis and reporting must be standardised to ensure the information is easily digestible.' Mr Martin said the views of Hong Kong businesses were important to Canada because of their involvement throughout the Pacific region and their obvious connections to Canada. Mr Martin would not comment on the likely impact of the falling value of the US dollar. He said he had come to an agreement with US Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin not to make public comment on either country's currency trading or levels. Mr Martin is due to attend the APEC Finance Minister's meeting in Indonesia on Saturday.
