Form regional capital market now

Form regional capital market now

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): A United Nations agency has proposed the
development of an ASEAN regional capital market and a bank to
back the rapid expansion of the region, ahead of the agency's
regional meeting here this week.

The UN Development Program (UNDP), which yesterday opened a
five-day meeting on regional development cooperation (RDC), said
ASEAN stock exchanges could work together to help provide cheaper
funds for the region's industry to cut dependence on external
resources.

ASEAN groups Malaysia with Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the
Philippines and Brunei.

"Efforts to develop new financial institutions should also be
studied," the UNDP said in a paper on the ASEAN-UNDP development
program ahead of its biennial RDC meeting for Asia and the
Pacific.

"Proposals to set up an export-import bank, an ASEAN trade and
investment corporation, an ASEAN development bank, a banking
research and training institute and an information exchange
system offer some possibilities," it said.

With deregulation of exchange controls and capital movements,
ASEAN should also consider the use of ASEAN currencies for
settling intra-regional deals, as well as liberalization of
domestic commercial banking operations, the agency said.

UNDP officials said the meeting in Kuala Lumpur would take on
a special significance as it coincided with the 50th anniversary
of the founding of the UN.

This year's RDC meeting will bring together some 200 delegates
from the region, as well as key government leaders, policy
planners, scholars and UNDP representatives from 31 countries.

Enhanced regional cooperation would benefit the region in
terms of finance, food security, tourism, information, the
environment commodities, trade, investment flows and human
resources development, it said.