Asian economies may need four years to recover: WB<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE (Reuters): Asia's tiger economies may take up to
\nfour years to recover from the crisis that has battered them over
\nthe last year, a senior World Bank official said yesterday.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Fiechter, director of special financial operations at
\nthe Washington-based bank, said Thailand, South Korea and
\nIndonesia had all embarked on reforms of their financial systems
\nto try to deal with the chaos that had gripped their markets.<\/p>\n
But such reforms were difficult to carry out and the
\nconfidence of markets would take time to restore, he said.<\/p>\n
"I think this will take two, three, four years to achieve,"
\nFiechter told Reuters in an interview.<\/p>\n
"If I have a big fear, it is that things will get too good too
\nsoon. And if that happens the fundamental reforms that need to
\noccur might not happen and we are right back in the soup."<\/p>\n
He said Bangkok, Seoul and Jakarta all realized that the
\nrestructuring of their financial systems would be a long process.<\/p>\n
"They realize they have gone through the first tunnel but
\nthere are maybe three other tunnels still to pass through,"
\nFiechter said.<\/p>\n
Set up in 1944, the World Bank is the West's main agency for
\nthe channeling of aid funds to the developing world.<\/p>\n
The bank has been supportive of most of the measures suggested
\nby the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to Asia's troubled
\neconomies since the financial crisis began last year.<\/p>\n
It has stressed the importance of mitigating the impact of the
\ncrisis on the region's poor but has agreed with the IMF that the
\nkey to any improvement in Asian economies is a sound financial
\nsystem.<\/p>\n
Fiechter earlier told a news conference on the sidelines of a
\nregional seminar on the Asian banking crisis that it was
\nessential that economies facing problems provided financial
\nmarkets with as much information as possible to encourage
\nconfidence among investors.<\/p>\n
"Investors simply can't handle uncertainty. They tend to vote
\nwith their feet if they don't know what is going on," Fiechter
\nsaid. "More information is preferred to less -- even if it is
\nnegative."<\/p>\n
Danny Leipziger, senior manager at the World Bank's Economic
\nDevelopment Institute in Washington, told the news conference the
\nAsian crisis had shown the importance of transparency in
\neconomies and the need for fast action to prevent crises from
\ndeveloping.<\/p>",
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