Ramos says Asian crisis is wake-up call
Ramos says Asian crisis is wake-up call
HONG KONG (Reuters): Asia's economic crisis is a "wake-up
call", not a major turning point in the region's growth
prospects, Philippine President Fidel Ramos said yesterday.
Recent financial turmoil, rather than shocking the region into
protectionist mode, was a timely reminder of the benefits of
openness, Ramos said.
"The current financial crisis is likely to be less a
psychological turning point than a wake-up call for our
countries," Ramos told the 1997 East Asia Economic Summit
organized by the World Economic Forum.
"It is obviously unrealistic to pronounce East Asia's period
of high growth as over."
Southeast Asia's economic fundamentals were still strong, with
the World Bank forecasting an average annual economic growth rate
for the region of 7.6 percent from 1997 to 2006, confirming East
Asia as the world's highest growth region, Ramos said.
But Ramos said strong regional stability, underpinned by
increasing economic interdependence, was an important precursor
to quick recovery from the troubles.
"The remedy lies not in turning away from the world but in
embracing it even more closely," Ramos said.
Constructive engagement and interdependence must be fully
supported to sustain regional peace and prosperity, he said.
"And these, we are convinced, trade, investment and
development cooperation will promote," Ramos said.
"We of the Philippines are bringing down all economic barriers
to globalization in the belief that regional security depends
primarily on peaceful commerce rather than on military power, and
that the future lies in economic interdependence," he said.
But nations face some hard choices in the coming months to
counter the economic upheaval.
Economic management would determine how well nations recovered
and some painful adjustments were going to be required in some
countries, Ramos said.
He said the Philippines was positioning itself to benefit from
a return to strong growth, partly by building an information
technology agenda in cooperation with the world's biggest
players.
Ramos said he would meet Microsoft Corp's Bill Gates and other
industry leaders during a visit to North America for the Asia
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting next month.
Anticipating much closer investor scrutiny of political and
socio-economic regimes in East Asia, Ramos pledged to speed up
economic reform efforts throughout the remaining eight months of
his tenure as president.
Confirming his decision not to run for re-election, Ramos said
he had persuaded the Philippines legislature to focus on
intensifying economic reform rather than changing the
constitution to allow him to run for a second term.
The Philippines, along with Thailand and Indonesia, was forced
to effectively devalue its currency earlier this year as investor
fears grew over the health of its economy.