Sultan to help currency turmoil

Sultan to help currency turmoil

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, considered the world's richest man, has promised to help countries affected by the recent turmoil in regional currencies, Malaysian newspapers said yesterday.

The Sultan, who by some estimates is worth around US$40 billion, told Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad that Brunei would work with members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to resolve the currency problem.

He gave no specific details, the dailies Business Times and the New Straits Times reported.

The assurance followed Mahathir's briefing with the visiting head of state, the newspapers quoted Malaysian Foreign Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi as saying.

"He (the Sultan) understood the problem resulting from this (currency manipulation) and he feels that something has to be done," Abdullah said.

Abdullah quoted Mahathir as telling the Sultan that those selling down the currencies of the region were "committing a criminal activity".

The Sultan is in Malaysia on a four-day state visit that ends on Thursday.

The tiny oil-rich sultanate does not have active financial markets. Its currency, the Brunei dollar, is pegged to the Singapore dollar and the two units are interchangeable.

The Thai baht, Philippine peso, Indonesian rupiah, Malaysian ringgit and even the Singapore dollar have badly weakened over the past two months due to selling by U.S. hedge funds and local companies hedging their foreign borrowings.

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