Thai minister seeks curbs on currency speculation<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON (Reuters): Thailand's Foreign Minister Surin
\nPitsuwan urged the international community on Monday to come up
\nwith ways to control currency speculation, warning that market-
\nopening reforms in developing nations were at stake.<\/p>\n
"The world, I think, has an urgent need to come together and
\nlook very, very carefully... into the negative impact of this
\nvery, very volatile speculative activity," Surin said.<\/p>\n
"If we can't come up with some agreement on that, then you
\nknow what the negative impact is going to be. Every economy is
\ngoing to be very hesitant, very reserved, very concerned about
\nopening up, about liberalization," he told a news conference in
\nWashington.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of this month, Malaysia's central bank
\nslapped curbs on foreign exchange trade to shield the battered
\nringgit currency from global instability and cut off speculators,
\nlong blamed by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for Asia's
\nfinancial woes.<\/p>\n
Malaysian policies have heightened concerns that other
\ndeveloping nations, hit by financial crises in Asia and Russia,
\nwould follow with tight controls of their own to shelter their
\neconomies and currencies from the contagion.<\/p>\n
International financier George Soros warned a U.S.
\ncongressional panel last week that Mahathir put Asia's recovery
\nat risk and encouraged more flight of capital.<\/p>\n
After Malaysia's announcement, Thailand made clear it saw no
\nneed to impose additional capital controls to help its economy,
\nwhich is riding its worst economic crisis in decades.<\/p>\n
Surin, during a trip to Washington, said confidence was
\nreturning to Thai financial markets, with the help of an IMF-
\narranged $17.2 billion rescue package agreed last year.<\/p>\n
"Rather than withdrawing or closing down, or trying to adopt
\nmeasures that would be counterproductive, that would be
\nretrogressive, we have been determined to stay the course of free
\nmarket, of opening up," he said. "We are determined to do
\nwhatever is expected of us to do."<\/p>\n
But Surin said the IMF, the World Bank and major industrial
\nnations, scheduled to meet in Washington in early October, needed
\nto develop ways to "lessen the negative impact" of currency
\nspeculation.<\/p>\n
"Some mechanism of monitoring, of supervision, of control of
\nmajor movement of capital from one place to another...on the
\nbasis of speculation, I think is in order," he said. "We do need
\na very, very close international cooperation on this in order to
\nbring a semblance of order."<\/p>\n
Without singling out Malaysia, Surin warned governments
\nagainst retreating from market-opening reforms.<\/p>",
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