ASEAN finance ministers to hold roadshows

ASEAN finance ministers to hold roadshows

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Southeast Asian finance ministers will stage joint roadshows
in Europe and the United States to help attract investors to the
region, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on
Wednesday.

In a keynote speech to the annual Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) finance ministers meeting, Lee highlighted
the roadshow concept as a way of drawing some international focus
back from regional giants China and India.

"To keep ASEAN on the radar screens of international
investors, finance ministers are planning to organize joint
roadshows to Europe and the U.S. to promote the investment
opportunities in ASEAN," said Lee, who is also finance minister.

Roadshows involve governments and companies presenting
opportunities to business leaders, fund managers and other
investors at key global cities.

Singapore's second finance minister, Lim Hng Kiang, who
chaired the ASEAN meeting, said the first joint promotion will
likely take place at the end of September in New York ahead of
the International Monetary Fund-World Bank meeting in Washington
in October.

Another opportunity will be when Singapore hosts the IMF-WB
meetings themselves in 2006. The annual meetings will gather the
world's finance ministers and central bank chiefs.

Lim said although the 10-member regional grouping has
implemented crucial reforms since the Asian financial crisis
seven years ago, investors remained wary of the region's
prospects.

"Not all of these (reforms) are clearly understood by the
investing community and therefore it is important for us to take
the message to the investors," he told a joint news conference at
the end of the meeting.

"We need to present the ASEAN story better to the outside
world and to bring the story to the investors as well as
eventually bring the investors to the region so that they can
understand us better... and see ASEAN as a place where the
investment opportunities are bright."

ASEAN has been losing out to China and India in terms of
attracting foreign investments as foreign companies look to the
two emerging economic powerhouses as cheaper and more efficient
bases.

Lee, who is also Singapore's finance minister, emphasized
ASEAN had a combined population of 560 million people and gross
domestic product of US$330 billion, comparable with China's
coastal region.

"ASEAN must once again band together to maximize our
strengths. Our fundamentals are strong and can be further
exploited," he said.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,
Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.