Asia-Pacific finance ministers to focus on turmoil, G15 opts out

Asia-Pacific finance ministers to focus on turmoil, G15 opts out

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Asia-Pacific finance ministers plan to
discuss steps to make currency trading more transparent and
develop prudential and disclosure standards for financial markets
during their two-day meeting next week, a senior Malaysian
official said Thursday.

Clifford Herbert, secretary-general of the finance ministry,
said the meetings of 15 ministers and their deputies would also
discuss regional surveillance and financing arrangements,
including a specific fund for ASEAN.

In a related development, Clifford said finance ministers from
the Group of Fifteen (G15) developing nations would not attend
next week's meeting as announced earlier this month at the end of
their annual summit in Malaysia.

Instead, the G15 ministers will meet "early next year" as next
week's schedule clashes with a meeting of Latin American finance
ministers.

Members of the G15 "asked us to consider whether we could
defer it," Herbert told a news conference. "We didn't want to
clash."

Herbert said finance ministers from Australia, Myanmar, Hong
Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and
Thailand would attend the two-day meeting from next Monday, along
with vice ministers from Brunei, China, Japan, South Korea, Laos,
the United States and Vietnam.

Deputy governors from the Reserve Bank of Australia, The
People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will
also attend, as well as senior officials from central banks of
Myanmar, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, the
Philippines, Singapore and Vietnam, another official said.

"These meetings will enhance the credibility of ongoing
efforts to restore stability and confidence in the region,"
Herbert said, referring to the recent collapse of several Asian
currencies and tens of billions of dollars in IMF-led bailout
facilities for Thailand, Indonesia and possibly South Korea.

Herbert said the meetings, which also include International
Monetary Fund managing director Michel Camdessus, would "discuss
the current economic situation faced by member countries and
exchange views on the causes and extent of the currency crisis
and policy responses to restore stability."

Among major issues to be discussed are the importance of
"enhancing transparency in currency trading" and the need for
"developing prudential and disclosure standards in financial
markets," Herbert said.

Also on the agenda are regional initiatives towards
establishing a "regional surveillance and financing arrangement,"
he added.

Camdessus will meanwhile "report on the progress of the IMF
study on hedge funds and their role in market dynamics," he said,
adding that ASEAN finance ministers would hold bilateral talks
with Japan and the United States.

"Japan is expected to brief the meeting on the Japanese
economic situation and present their perspectives on efforts to
restore stability in the region.

"Similarly, the United States will also present their views on
the current situation and the role the United States can play to
restore stability."

Herbert said ASEAN finance ministers would also discuss the
idea of a specific fund for the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations.

"We haven't discussed the modalities yet," he said, adding
that this was "something ministers have to decide among
themselves."

But the ASEAN fund "won't be very large" and will be "just for
confidence building," he said. "It's an ASEAN initiative."

Clifford said the fund would be "different" from an Asian
supplementary financing facility involving the IMF. "The Asian
supplementary financing facility is not a fund but a commitment,"
he said.

The facility proposed in Manila effectively killed off
proposals by Japan and some ASEAN countries including Malaysia
for an Asia-wide fund not necessarily linked to the IMF to help
bail out distressed economies.

Known as a "cooperative financing arrangement", the facility
is designed to be used in exceptional circumstances to augment a
country's reserves, supplementing traditional IMF instruments and
involving larger amounts to be lent at rates closer to those
prevailing in the market.