ASEM starts to discuss financial crisis

ASEM starts to discuss financial crisis

BANGKOK (AFP): Asian and European finance ministers assembled
here yesterday to seek ways of dousing Southeast Asia's raging
financial crisis and lay the ground for cooperation into the 21st
century.

Thai Finance Minister Thanong Bidaya said the Asia-Europe
meeting (ASEM) would aim for "constructive consultations" on ways
to stabilize regional financial markets which went into a
tailspin after Thailand floated its currency on July 2.

"I think it is going to be a very timely conference after all
this... money and foreign exchange problem in this region," said
Thanong, who will chair Friday's meeting of 25 countries.

French Finance Minister Dominique Strauss-Kahn said it would
be "very useful" to discuss what he described as a "very deep
crisis" and "what is coming after."

But he said after a meeting with Thanong that "the biggest
problems" were behind, adding that the crisis had highlighted
hidden problems and reminded the region that "things have to be
done."

Ministers and top officials from the 25 member-countries of
the Asia Europe Meeting (ASEM) streamed into the Thai capital
under tight security ahead of the group's first finance chiefs
meeting.

But the ministers are likely to see their official agenda of
setting the stage for long-term cooperation overshadowed by
concerns on the monetary storm sweeping through the seemingly
invincible Asian economic Tigers.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Anwar
Ibrahim confirmed when arriving at the conference venue that the
monetary and financial crisis would occupy the officials' time.

"It certainly will be reviewed," he told reporters.
Singapore Finance Minister Richard Hu said ministers of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would meet late
Thursday, while sources said the top item on the agenda would be
financial stability.

The region, led by embattled Thailand, has seen its currency
and stock markets badly hit by a wave of financial instability
that has engulfed the region for the past four months.

Southeast Asian currency and stock markets have gone through
non-stop turbulence since Thailand floated the baht, with its
economy in deep crisis amid bad debt fears surrounding its
beleaguered finance sector.

The Philippine peso, the Indonesian rupiah and the Malaysian
ringgit have all hit all-time lows under speculative attacks
while even the normally robust Singapore dollar has not been
spared from the regional contagion.

"Everybody is following the situation in Asia very carefully,"
European Union Ambassador to Thailand Michel Caillouet said as
ASEAN senior officials prepared for an informal huddle here
Thursday.

"This meeting will be a good opportunity to share our
experiences as in Europe we have been working for a very long
time, for more than 40 years, to develop an (integration)
process."

EU Finance Commissioner Thibault de Silguy urged Asian
economies to open their markets, boost regional cooperation and
step up regulation of their financial markets to help foster
financial stability.

ASEM was formed at a meeting here two years ago to boost
cooperation and development between the two continents. It
includes the 15 EU members, seven ASEAN members as well as Japan,
China and South Korea.

The seven ASEAN members meeting here with their European
counterparts are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Recent ASEAN members Burma and
Laos were not included.

Currency -- Page 10