ASEAN finance minister to rehash ongoing initiatives
ASEAN finance minister to rehash ongoing initiatives
SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Finance ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are expected to rehash a host of ongoing initiatives, but break little new ground at their meeting in Brunei this week.
The meeting opens Thursday and runs through Sunday.
One of the higher profile issues being watched by market participants is what progress, if any, Asean authorities are making in refining a peer surveillance mechanism intended to allow member countries to better monitor developments in each others' economies.
The finance ministers from the 10-country bloc also are expected to discuss efforts to improve the workings of regional capital markets, a controversial plan to establish an Asian Monetary Fund, and other general economic issues.
Asean is made up of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The group has also invited representatives from Japan, China and South Korea to send deputy-level representatives to the meeting in a move that could lead to eventual permanent membership for the North Asian countries.
The economic surveillance system was inaugurated by the Asean members a year ago this month, but observers say the program has fallen short of its original goals.
The information being exchanged between countries appears to be for the most part publicly available economic data, analysts say.
"The original agreement was to go beyond that," said John Funston a senior fellow at the Institute for Southeast Asian Studies.
But it should come as no surprise that Asean members are reluctant to divulge proprietary information between each other given their battles to grab larger market shares.
"They're all in competition with each other," said Adrian Foster, senior economist at Nomura Securities.
The ministers are also sure to bring up a long-standing proposal to form an Asian Monetary Fund - an idea that has encountered stiff opposition from the International Monetary Fund and Western governments in general.
The Manila-based Asian Development Bank released a report last week saying there's a need to seriously consider such an institution.
Although the report was compiled last year, its release comes amid a growing debate over the role of multilateral banks, and specifically whether the World Bank should pull out of Asia and let the ADB be the main agency in the region to make loans and alleviate poverty.
Funston said there may be some misunderstanding in the West about possible ways an Asia Monetary Fund could be structured.
"It depends on how it is presented," he said. "If it is presented as an alternative to the IMF is will immediately run into opposition. But if it is compatible with and complimentary to the IMF it shouldn't be too much of a problem."