Lima, Peru (ANTARA News) - Leaders of APEC's member economies had agreed to keep carrying out measures and strengthen cooperations in a coordinative and comprehensive way to implement a clear policy in facing crisis.

This point was one of the agreed matters of APEC's leaders in the first session of their meeting in Lima, Peru on Saturday (Nov.21).

APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) member countries had also agreed to support the export credit agency, international financial institutions and private-owned banks to make sure about the funding adequacy for business activities including for the small-and-medium scale of enterprises and help maintain trade and investment in the region.

On the reform of financial sector, the APEC's leaders also agreed to keep carrying out development projects and innovation in the financial sector, and believed that the more complex of financial system, the more effective regulation is needed

In addition, APEC also hailed the Washington declaration as an output of the past week's G-20 countries meeting that supported the action plan of reform in financial market.

APEC Peru 2008 formally began with a Senior Officials meeting in Lima on February 20, followed by a range of ministerial meetings, workshops, symposiums and other events that would culminate with the APEC Leaders' Meeting on November 22.

At the APEC CEO Summit 2008 here on Friday, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the business community must not fail to help the communities present around them, especially in the current financial crisis which has caused the number of the poor to increase.

"That there is a realization that globalization and the way we grow our business, must be done by bringing along the community around us. It must be participatory, it must be inclusive and it must be able to reduce the number of poor people," President Yudhoyono said.

Yudhoyono made the statements in his keynote speech titled "Economic Growth, Inequality and Poverty: The Challenges for APEC's Developing Economies" at the APEC CEO summit running parallel to an APEC meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies which would last on Nov. 22 and 23, 2008. (*)