Top �� What's up around the Prime Minister �� October, 2002

The Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy Monday, October 7, 2002 The twenty-eighth meeting of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy (CEFP) was held at the Prime Minister's Official Residence with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in attendance. During this meeting, Minister of State for Financial Services Heizou Takenaka reported postponement of the introduction of the payoff system by two years in order to avoid confusion stemming from the acceleration of the disposal of non-performing loans. Furthermore, a basic policy was compiled for the fundamental reform of policy-based finance. In the basic policy, based on the recognition that a fundamental policy-based finance reform that taps the unrestricted and independent activities of the private sector as deeply as possible is required, the following steps were outlined: first, review of the policy-based finance function; then curtailment of loan businesses that operate in fields in which they compete with the private sector, and promotion of the abolition or privatization of those functions, after selecting the functions that should be kept. In line with this basic policy, consideration will be given to the modality of individual policy-based finance institutions, with conclusions to be reached by the end of the year. In addition, participants at the meeting also discussed matters such as tax reform, the stability of the financial system and comprehensive measures to prevent deflation.