Asian central bankers to discuss innovations, economic outlook

Asian central bankers to discuss innovations, economic outlook

Dow Jones, Manila

Financial innovations amid the challenges facing monetary authorities and the outlook on the world economy are expected to dominate a closed-door meeting of Asian central bankers in Manila, a Philippine central bank official said Thursday.

"Our agenda includes world economic outlook, financial innovations, and the implication of the Basel accord," said Alberto Reyes, a deputy governor of the Philippine central bank. He was referring to the New Basel Capital Accord that is aimed at enabling supervisors to evaluate properly the various risks that banks face.

Public and private cooperation in financial restructuring will also be discussed during the 38th conference of governors of Southeast Asian Central Banks, or Seacen, which will run until Friday.

Preparation to avert a fallout from a possible war in Iraq isn't on the agenda, Reyes said, but some market observers expect the participants to touch on the issue.

Senior central bank officials from Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka, China, Taipei, and Thailand were present in the meeting. In addition, observer central banks were scheduled to come from Cambodia, Brunei, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga.

The Seacen Governors Conference started in 1966 as an informal gathering of the governors of central banks in the South East Asia Voting Group of the International Monetary Fund to discuss economic and financial issues of common interest to the group.

The conference seeks to provide a venue for the governors of the member countries to discuss and exchange views on the latest economic and financial developments in their countries, focusing on the challenges faced, the measures taken to overcome them and the prospects for the coming year.

A communique is expected to be issued after the two-day conference.