AIPO accepts Laos as new member

AIPO accepts Laos as new member

By Dwi Atmanta

DENPASAR (JP): The acceptance of Laos into the Association of
Southeast Asia Nations Internal Parliament Organization (AIPO)
marked the first day of the organization's 18th general assembly
yesterday, with talks immediately following on a solution to the
monetary problem currently afflicting the region.

A plenary session of the assembly presided over by AIPO
President Wahono agreed to appoint the Laotian National Assembly
as the organization's seventh member.

Laos now joins Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as AIPO members. AIPO's decision
yesterday followed the inclusion of Laos into ASEAN during its
ministerial meeting in Kuala Lumpur in July.

The plenary session also adopted a resolution that admits
another new ASEAN member, Myanmar, as an AIPO special observer.
Myanmar, like Brunei, has not received full membership to AIPO
because it does not have a legislative body yet.

President of the Laotian National Assembly, Samane Vignaket,
expressed guarded optimism at the admission ceremony that the
inclusion of his country into AIPO would help enhance Laos'
socioeconomic development so that it could be on par with other
member countries.

Wahono, also speaker of the Indonesian House of
Representatives, said in his speech that AIPO's decision to admit
Laos was additional proof of ASEAN's consistent policy in
building the Southeast Asian region into a solid group.

He said AIPO was looking forward to seeing a settlement to the
internal conflict in Cambodia.

Chairman of the assembly's working committee, Theo Sambuaga,
said the internal rift in Cambodia would be among the major
political topics of committee meetings, along with the South
China Sea dispute.

The meetings, scheduled for two days starting today, will be
followed by a series of dialogs between AIPO members and observer
delegations from Cambodia, Australia, China, the European
Parliament, South Korea, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and
Russia.

A joint communique will be signed on Friday to mark the
closing of the general assembly.

Currency

A member of the assembly's steering committee, Taheri Noor,
said the six-day meeting was expected to draw up a resolution to
help ASEAN governments cope with the monetary turmoil in the
region.

Taheri said AIPO was likely to suggest that ASEAN governments
make use of a joint monetary institution already approved last
month to help countries which suffer from the overpriced dollar.

He said the institution should oblige ASEAN member countries
to store savings in dollars, the amount of which would depend on
the capability of respective countries. Countries endangered by
the currency trouble deserve a certain percentage of lending in
dollars, he added.

"Each ASEAN member cannot rely on its own strength. Instead it
should team up to cope with the monetary problem," Taheri said.

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Soerjadi shared
Taheri's view, saying that the ongoing AIPO general assembly
should not be satisfied with coming up with a joint statement. It
should instead issue a recommendation for action.

"This meeting may recommend a mutual agreement of ASEAN
members to adopt a common directive, although it may be a loose
one, to avoid conflicting economic policies between them," said
Soerjadi, the deputy speaker in charge of economic and
development affairs.

He said the currency crisis could threaten ongoing preparation
for the free trade area in Southeast Asia in 2003.