Asian market concerns

The Vancouver Declaration is regarded by market players as showing a lack of commitment with regard to the present Asian monetary crisis. It is being viewed as a collection of clichd statements that contain no specific commitments whatsoever, such as for example concerning the proposed establishment of an emergency fund outside the IMF.

It is this very lack of specific commitments that renders the Vancouver Declaration incapable of adequately attenuating the current Asian monetary crisis. Stock and currency rates even fell on the day the declaration was made public.

One of the breakthroughs which the Asian market was actually hoping for was the establishment of what was referred to by President Soeharto as an emergency standby fund. Such a fund outside the IMF would be better capable of reaching the market quickly and without the bureaucratic procedures associated with IMF packages.

The APEC declaration is still absorbed with trade liberation, which is actually no longer being debated. On the other hand, the real needs of the Asian market are inadequately referred to.

The Asian economic disease which has now become epidemical springs from a disregard for the cost of money. The Asian economies are built on loans due to easy facilities that have been provided by the government through the banking system.

The present economic crisis has resulted from the market's inability to develop on a base of economic fundamentals that are built on loans. Because of this the Vancouver Declaration cannot boost optimism in the Asian market.

-- Media Indonesia, Jakarta