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.