ASEAN currency fund to seek contributors

ASEAN currency fund to seek contributors

MANILA (AFP): A proposed regional fund to bail out troubled Southeast Asian economies will seek contributors from all over the world, Philippine President Fidel Ramos said yesterday.

Ramos however insisted that it would be more of a "common facility" and that it would not compete with existing multilateral financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF.)

Speaking at his weekly news conference, Ramos, one of the proponents of the common fund, said "the facility would consist of resources which we of ASEAN can make available or which other countries in Asia-Pacific or even around the world can make available."

"This is not in competition with the IMF, the World Bank or the ADB (Asian Development Bank) or any other multilateral institutions which are already there," he added.

But he said "there are no specifics yet. We are just looking at the concept of it."

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Burma, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Ramos has discussed with other ASEAN leaders the setting up of a common fund for ASEAN members to assist those hurt by the currency crisis and to fund massive infrastructure requirements.

He is expected to raise the issue during the ASEAN informal summit in Malaysia in December.

There have been concerns that such a common fund might be used to cover up weaknesses in ASEAN member-economies and would be used as a substitute to avoid stringent conditions imposed by the IMF.

Southeast Asian currencies including the Thai baht, the Indonesian rupiah, the Malaysian ringgit and the Philippine peso have fallen sharply against the US dollar under a wave of speculative attacks triggered by the baht's July 2 float.