Established in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand, the ASEM Finance Ministers’ Meeting serves as a forum fostering policy dialogues and consultations on financial issues between Asia and Europe. As one of the major follow-up mechanisms of the ASEM Summit, the ASEM FMM aims at formulating advices on macroeconomic and financial policies for the Summit and implementing instructions and decisions on fiscal and monetary issues endorsed by the leaders. In tradition, the ASEM FMM is attended by the Finance Ministers of member countries in Asia and Europe. The meeting has also invited the representatives of the Bretton Woods Institutions, the Asian Development Bank, and other relevant international organizations.

Ever since its inception, the ASEM FinMM has facilitated extensive and in-depth exchanges of views on the macroeconomic and financial issues of common concerns of the members.

Moreover, the ASEM FinMM has also launched a variety of concrete initiatives, such as the ASEM Trust Fund, the European Financial Expertise Network，the ASEM Anti-Money Laundering Initiative, Kobe Initiative，the Public Debt Management Forum and the Bali Initiative, all of which have served in reinforcing the regional economic and financial cooperation.

Nowadays, the cross-regional economic cooperation has endured great changes. Although the world economy has witnessed rapid growth in 2004, challenges still remain for the regional and global growth in 2005. Pursuant to the Hanoi Declaration on Closer partnership adopted by 5th ASEM Summit in October 2004, the 6th ASEM FMM endeavoured to strengthen dialogues on policy actions for enhanced economic cooperation between Asia and Europe, and striving to contribute to the sustained regional and global economic growth.