Jittery Southeast Asia looks outside for help

Jittery Southeast Asia looks outside for help

By Ruth Youngblood

MANILA (DPA): Anxious Southeast Asian foreign ministers are
cautiously counting on Japan's new leader to revitalize bleeding
neighbors while the United States is exhorted to cough up more
funds to replenish the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

But diplomats note the nine-member Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been painfully slow in adopting reforms
such as the use of local currencies in trade and setting up a
surveillance mechanism to sound an early alarm against future
financial crises.

With Japanese Foreign Minister Keizo Obuchi expected in Manila
to meet with his ASEAN counterparts today, Malaysian Foreign
Minister Abdullah Badawi focused on expectations from outside.

"We hope they will play a more active role and will be able to
help us," he said. "We know they are having problems themselves,
but I think that in spite of that, the Japanese role is still
very, very important if we hope to see a recovery of the ASEAN
economies."

Obuchi, who has emerged as the next prime minister of Japan
while the country battles its worst recession since World War II,
has acknowledged he has little economic experience, leaving ASEAN
dignitaries scrambling for reasons to anticipate better times
ahead.

"Like any other government in our part of the world, of course
the Japanese have to address themselves to the problems that are
arising mostly in the financial and economic field," said
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas.

"But we are very convinced that Japan will continue to play
its traditional role, its very constructive role of helping out
developing countries in the region," he said.

Philippine Foreign Minister Domingo Siazon noted Japan's
foreign policy will not change. "What is important is that Obuchi
knows the region quite well. He has been around."

Against such vague prognoses, the delegates are turning to the
United States to make more funding available to the dwindling
coffers of the IMF. The ASEAN Regional Forum, which traditionally
deals with security concerns, is expected to take up the
financial crisis as its top priority today.

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and ASEAN's eleven
other dialogue partners are likely to hear some ardent arguments
for more funds for the IMF and other institutions.

IMF-led rescue packages for Indonesia, Thailand and South
Korea amounted to more than US$120 billion in the past year. Cash
reserves are low, but wrangling in the U.S. House of
Representatives has held up fresh funding.

Philippine President Joseph Estrada called on world economic
powers to help restore financial stability in Asia by opening
credit lines and providing greater market access.

"The United States and Europe, being the principal outlets of
ASEAN exports, can spur our recovery," Estrada said, adding the
IMF resources are "frighteningly insufficient" to prevent a
further slide.

Estrada noted, however, that ASEAN must take an active part in
shaping the international financial system.

The establishment of an ASEAN surveillance mechanism proposed
last year is not in place yet. Both ASEAN and the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) want the secretariat at the ADB's Manila
headquarters for two years.

"We are still working on the precise nature of the mechanism,"
said ASEAN Secretary General Rodolfo Severino.

As for greater use of regional currencies, Severino said the
approach would encourage trade with each other and stimulate
economic activity. Only the Philippines and Malaysia have kicked
the scheme off.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines,
Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar (Burma).