RP to use ASEAN currencies

RP to use ASEAN currencies

MANILA (AFP): A Philippine government agency is looking into measures to encourage the use of ASEAN currencies in intra- regional trade to save dollars in the worsening financial crisis, the presidential palace said Saturday.

A palace statement said the Economic Mobilization Group, a special body headed by President Joseph Estrada's chief aide, executive secretary Ronaldo Zamora, was seeking a report on developments towards use of intra-ASEAN currencies.

This would include a record of availments under such arrangements, such as the existing scheme between the Philippines and Malaysia allowing the two countries to use each other's currencies in trading.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations have been calling for wider use of each other's currencies after most were hit by waves of depreciation that began last year.

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