Aussie to help SE Asia

Wed, 17 Sep 1997, 00:00 WIB | Source: AFP

SYDNEY (AFP): Australia has launched a major effort to
reassure Southeast Asian nations that it is ready to increase
financial support for embattled currencies, whose decline now
threatens exports from here.

Treasurer Peter Costello is on a visit to Malaysia, China and
Hong Kong where he is reinforcing a message hammered home by
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in Perth on Monday -- that
Canberra will consider aid to other Asia-Pacific nations if it is
needed.

But Downer also expressed confidence in the long-term economic
future of the Association of South East Asian Nations despite the
crisis which forced the International Monetary Fund to prop up
Thailand's economy with a US$16 billion rescue package.

Foreign affairs department officials stressed Tuesday that
Australia's role in the currency rescue and its decision to lend
$1 billion of the total to Thailand was in the national interest.

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