Officials gather for economic discussions
Officials gather for economic discussions
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Asia-Pacific finance officials will meet
here over the weekend to discuss a regional surveillance
mechanism aimed at warding off potential future crises, and the
burning issue of capital controls.
The meeting of the so-called Manila Framework -- a regional
surveillance group formed in the Philippine capital in November
1997 following the East Asian financial crisis -- will ponder
over reforms for the global monetary system, the Malaysian
finance ministry said.
"This third meeting in Malaysia will focus on regional
surveillance issues and developments in financial markets
especially with respect to restoring private capital flows, as
well as issues related to the reform of the architecture of the
international financial system," it said.
Sources told AFP that Malaysia's central Bank Negara was
expected to brief delegates on the country's controversial
foreign exchange controls imposed in September to insulate it
from foreign pressure.
Under the controls aimed at hauling the economy from its first
recession in 13 years, the ringgit was fixed at 3.80 to the
dollar and made virtually non-convertible abroad.
The Kuala Lumpur talks will be attended by senior finance
officers and deputy central bankers from Australia, Brunei,
Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, New Zealand,
the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.
The U.S. delegation will be led by Timothy Geithner, who is
senior deputy assistant secretary for international affairs in
the US treasury, diplomats said.
Officials from the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will also attend the two-
day talks.
The World Bank would be led by its senior vice-president
Joseph Stiglitz and vice-president for East Asia and the Pacific
Jean-Michel Severino while the IMF is represented by deputy
managing director Stanley Fischer.
After the grouping's formation in Manila, officials met for a
second time in Tokyo in March followed by an ad-hoc meeting in
June centered around Japan's crisis and the plunging yen.
The Manila framework is aimed at putting in place a regional
monitoring mechanism to complement IMF's global supervision, with
a cooperative financing arrangement with the Washington-based
Fund.
It is also designed to enhance regional economic and technical
cooperation, and supporting a stronger IMF to respond to future
financial crises.
The weekend meeting in Kuala Lumpur comes ahead of the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders' summit on 17-18
November.