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even members of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) have agreed to liberalize cross-border sales of investment products by financial services professionals in the region.

Finance officials and regulators from seven APEC economies, namely Australia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, signed on Jan. 18 in Singapore a memorandum of cooperation on the content of the Asia Region Funds Passport.

The seven APEC members are pioneer participants in the Asia Region Funds Passport, an agreement that aims to make it easier for financial services professionals in a participating APEC economy to sell investment products, such as mutual funds, to retail customers in other participating APEC economies. The agreement hopes to eventually promote job creation and growth in the region.

Securities regulators from these seven economies are expected to sign a further memorandum early in 2016, according to an official statement. The Asia Region Funds Passport is on track for commencement by 2017.

Activation for the Asia Region Funds Passports will take place as soon as two or more participating economies sign the memorandum and implement its arrangements, the statement said.

Commenting on the initiative, Financial Services Authority (OJK) chairman Muliaman D. Hadad told The Jakarta Post that the agency had yet to receive any official information from APEC, but would prepare for any aspect under its supervision that could be affected by foreign agreements.

'€œI don'€™t know about the details yet, but basically we should first thoroughly review the agreement to see whether it will benefit us,'€ he said recently.

Muliaman said the financial regulator would actively study all cross-border agreements, including financial sector liberalization in the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) set to commence in 2020.

'€œWe always emphasize that agreements on financial sectors should be mutually beneficial and uphold the principles of reciprocity between the members,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) president director Tito Sulistio said he was convinced that such liberalization in cross-border sales of investment products would positively raise the competitiveness level of sales agents in the domestic capital market.

According to Tito, direct competition with foreign professionals would increase the quality of service and efficiency in local companies, saying '€œPak Jokowi [President Joko Widodo] has said that Pertamina [the state-run oil and gas firm] had bad service quality, which would be improved after it entered into open competition with foreign companies.'€

'€œThis competition will benefit local investors. I am convinced that local investors in the capital market will be happy with a larger variety of products, including those from overseas,'€ he said, adding that Indonesia'€™s capital market was relatively liberalized toward foreign investments.

The APEC Policy Support Unit found in its study that once fully launched, Asia Region Funds Passport could save the region investment to the tune of US$20 billion annually in fund management costs and could, furthermore, offer higher investment returns with the same or with a lower degree of risk.

The group also said the initiative would encourage a pool of local funds that could create 170,000 jobs in APEC economies within five years.

'€œThe Asia Region Funds Passport aims to cut down on incompatible or overlapping regulation that may hinder the marketing of managed funds between participating APEC economies,'€ said Trudie Wykes, chair of the informal group leading its development.

'€œThe initiative is a win-win idea for financial services professionals and retail investors with potentially significant benefits for employment and economic growth,'€ Wykes said.

The Asia Region Funds Passport was included in APEC'€™s services sector program as one of the themes in the 2015 APEC Economic Leaders'€™ Week held in Manila, the Philippines, in November last year, attended by 21 member countries, including Indonesia.