Malaysia, Singapore leaders meet on Asian crisis

Malaysia, Singapore leaders meet on Asian crisis

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong and his Malaysian counterpart Mahathir Mohamad met yesterday to discuss Asia's financial crisis, a spokesman at Goh's office said.

"They discussed the regional currency crisis and bilateral relations," the spokesman said.

He said Goh and Mahathir met at the Sebana golf resort in Malaysia's Johor state, just across the Causeway from Singapore, but gave no other details.

Several Singapore ministers and Johor chief minister Abdul Ghani Othman were present at the meeting, Malaysia's national news agency Bernama reported.

Mahathir met Indonesian President Soeharto on Saturday, shortly after Goh went to Jakarta for similar meetings, and said Malaysia and Indonesia would enhance cooperation to work their way out of the economic crisis which has swept the region.

Indonesia, for which the International Monetary Fund (IMF) put together a $43 billion rescue package, has been among the hardest hit in Southeast Asia as investors fled the region over the past few months.

Malaysia has also been hit hard, while Singapore, one of the richest states in the region, has escaped relatively lightly.

Meanwhile Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday Asia's currency meltdown and economic crisis are expected to take center stage at the two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in London from April 3.

"We want to know its impact on this region," he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

"I told them that ASEAN is aware that the problems cannot be resolved by the regional grouping alone as it (the problem) has a global dimension and is linked to the world currency trading," he added.

ASEM is a forum to strengthen political and economic ties and it groups the 15-member European Union (EU) and 10 East Asian countries, including China, Japan and South Korea.