Asian ministers to discuss $1b Asian Bond Fund
Asian ministers to discuss $1b Asian Bond Fund
Michael Mathes, Agence France-Presse, Bangkok
Ministers from 18 Asian nations will meet in northern Thailand
from Friday for talks expected to focus on the US$1 billion Asian
Bond Fund, an initiative of Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The three-day Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), in its second
year, will be held in the northern city of Chiang Mai and hosted
by Thaksin, the forum's founder.
Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and South Korean Foreign
Minister Yoon Young-Kwan are confirmed as attending, along with
mainly foreign ministers from India, Pakistan, Japan, Bangladesh,
Bahrain, Qatar and 10 Southeast Asian nations.
"The Asian Bond Fund is one of the very important issues to be
taken up there," deputy foreign ministry spokesman Itti
Ditbanjong told AFP, adding that the Chiang Mai Declaration on
development of the fund will be issued on Sunday.
On June 2, Thaksin announced the highly-anticipated scheme
under which 11 Asian economies -- Australia, China, Hong Kong,
Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines,
Singapore, South Korea and Thailand -- will focus on investing in
regional government bonds.
Thaksin has said he wants the fund to promote regional
financial stability and minimize the risk of a repeat of the
1997-98 Asian economic crisis.
On Thursday he said the response had been so positive that a
second Asian fund could be set up at the ACD to include India and
several Middle Eastern countries who have expressed interest in
joining the scheme.
"It may be we can set up another fund at this meeting if many
countries agreed on how to develop Asian debt instruments," he
told reporters.
International credit agency Standard and Poor's last week said
the Asian Bond Fund would increase co-operation among the
region's monetary authorities and develop Asia's capital markets.
"The creation of the fund is a positive development in
regional financial co-operation and Standard and Poor's applauds
this as a tangible step in the evolution of a regional bond
market," said its regional head Cecile Saavedra.
Central banks in Japan, the Philippines and Singapore have
announced separately that they will each provide US$100 million
to the fund, while Australia's reserve bank will contribute $50
million.
The ACD is being held on the heels of this week's meeting of
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers
in Cambodia followed by the ASEAN Regional Forum, a security
grouping encompassing 23 nations and blocs.
At the Phnom Penh meeting, the ministers grappled with tough
issues including North Korea's nuclear ambitions, Myanmar's
political turmoil and the war on terror.
While there is no fixed agenda at the ACD, analysts believe it
will veer away from the political issues that dominated the ARF
and instead focus on development and economic themes.
"I'm sure the issues will be lighter than at the ARF," said
Prapat Thepchatree, director of the Center for International
Policy Studies at Bangkok's Thammasat University.
"There are several issues of cooperation that (ACD members)
would like to move on this year, namely poverty alleviation,
human resources development, science and technology, energy,
transportation and communication," he added.
Itti confirmed such issues as well as tourism, the
environment, and e-commerce are on the ACD agenda for the main
dialogue set for Sunday.