Singapore talks focus on US$10b Asia initiative
Singapore talks focus on US$10b Asia initiative
SINGAPORE (Reuters): The outcome of a two-day meeting on East
Asian corporate and bank restructuring will be the basis for
talks this week on how to deploy a US$10 billion growth fund for
the crisis-hit region, officials said Saturday.
"These meetings will give us information we need to take to
the Asia Growth and Recovery Initiative (AGRI) talks on Monday,"
a member of Thailand's delegation to the meeting told Reuters.
AGRI is a US$10 billion multilateral initiative led by the
United States and Japan with the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) to help nurture recovery in the region.
A meeting co-chaired by the United States and Japan will be
held in Singapore on Monday and will include officials from the
International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, ADB and various
members of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) group.
The Thai official, speaking on the sidelines of the two-day
restructuring conference co-sponsored by the World Bank and the
Singapore-based Pacific Economic Cooperation Council, said he
expected concrete progress on how the AGRI funds would be used.
"These talks should enable the senior officials next week to
draw up some policy measures on how to use these funds to begin
the recovery process," he said.
Overviews on the progress of restructuring efforts and the
financing needs of various countries have topped the agenda for
the two days of discussion which began on Friday.
Conference participants included officials from China's
finance ministry and central bank, Indonesia's central bank and
bank restructuring agency, Malaysia's finance ministry, South
Korea's corporate restructuring committee and Thailand's central
bank and finance ministry.
Saturday's session focused on financial sector restructuring,
with progress reports from Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia
taking center stage, said an official from one finance ministry
in attendance, who declined to be identified.
Indonesia's government has closed 38 banks, taken over seven
and plans to recapitalize another nine in moves aimed to prepare
the way for recovery from its worst recession in 30 years.
Thai banks have been crippled by bad loans amounting to about
44 percent of total lending, or about 2.7 trillion baht (US$71.2
billion), central bank figures showed.
South Korea has already set aside some 64 trillion won and
could need another 10 trillion won ($8.16 billion) for
restructuring a financial sector bogged down by bad loans that
are eventually estimated to peak at 118 trillion won.
"It has been useful to bring together all these people to
explain the current situation, but we still need more details and
they are sometimes lacking," the finance ministry official said.
"Some countries are reluctant to bring out some details in
such open discussions," the Thai official said.