All eyes on Bangkok for emergency SARS summit
All eyes on Bangkok for emergency SARS summit
Agencies Bangkok
ASEAN's 10 leaders plus China's Premier Wen Jiabao will seek to present a united front to a worried world at their Tuesday summit here on the SARS virus, which continues to claim lives.
Wen was to join leaders of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok for the unprecedented half-day emergency gathering to address Asia's worst crisis since the financial meltdown of 1997-1998.
Tung Chee-hwa, the chief executive of Hong Kong -- one of the worst affected regions -- will also take part in the Bangkok summit, it was announced on Monday.
The summit is considered crucial as "it will be a forum for making a commitment by leaders" to a common approach against the spread of SARS, Supamit Chunsuttiwat of Thailand's Department of Disease Control told AFP.
ASEAN leaders hope to convince a spooked global community that they are taking efficient and drastic measures to contain the spread of the epidemic, and are also expected to announce new measures to coordinate their fight against the disease.
"Practically, it will be a very important meeting. It will be a forum for endorsement for what was discussed in Malaysia," Supamit said.
Health ministers from ASEAN and key partners China, Japan and South Korea meeting in Kuala Lumpur called on Saturday for strict screening measures at all airports and other exit points to prevent suspected SARS cases from traveling.
Thailand's health minister said national leaders arriving for the summit will be exempt from the stringent health checks imposed on travelers arriving from high-risk SARS areas including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam.
"We will exempt health checks for leaders and ministers," Sudarat Keyuraphan told reporters.
Other delegation members, including accompanying reporters from China, Singapore and Hong Kong, will undergo mandatory health checks at the airport or Thailand's foreign ministry, where the summit is to be held.
"They will have to wear masks while they are here," she said of delegation members excluding ministers and leaders.
SARS is wreaking havoc on ASEAN's economies, with growth forecasts being steadily lowered and tourism plummeting, leaving related industries such as aviation reeling.
The global cost of SARS is already approaching US$30 billion, according to a report in the latest edition of Time magazine.
In Canada, the country most affected outside Asia, where the disease originated, J.P. Morgan Securities estimates that the city of Toronto is losing $30 million a day as a result of the outbreak, Time reported.
With 269 of Canada's 344 possible SARS cases and all 20 of its deaths from the atypical strain of pneumonia, Toronto has borne the brunt of the country's epidemic.
In Asia, where SARS has hit hardest, economists predict that China and South Korea could each lose as much as $2 billion in tourism revenue, retail sales and productivity as a direct result of the disease.
Japan and Hong Kong stand to lose around $1 billion each, according to Time.