Terrorism, war, AIDS threaten Asian growth

Terrorism, war, AIDS threaten Asian growth

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

Terrorism, war and AIDS threaten Asia's growth prospects, a
World Economic Forum summit heard Monday.

Government and corporate delegates at the East Asia Economic
Summit here said a prolonged U.S.-led war in Iraq could hurt the
region's economic recovery.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, whose government
is a staunch supporter of the U.S. in its showdown with Iraq,
said "if the war is over fast it is okay" but a protracted war
would push oil prices up.

Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said the threat of war
was hampering the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks targeted
for completion by the end of 2004.

"With a looming war over our head... people are now much more
cautious about market opening," she said.

Rajesh Narasimhan, vice president of Singapore-based
consulting firm Covansys, told AFP war and a potential oil crisis
would impact on any recovery.

"All of this has a negative impact on the recovery of markets
and hurts sentiment."

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said U.S. policy on
terrorism was irrational and getting rid of Iraqi leader Saddam
Hussein would not solve the problem.

The veteran Southeast Asian Muslim leader told journalists he
understood that "Americans are very angry. And of course they
have reasons to be angry, but when people are angry they tend to
become irrational.

"If you want to fight against terrorism you have to identify
the reasons why terrorists are like they are."

Mahathir has strongly urged U.S. President George W. Bush to
take a multilateral approach towards Iraq and not launch a
unilateral attack.

"Getting rid of Saddam is not going to solve the problem," he
said.

Mahathir said earlier that fear of terrorism and reactions to
that fear were making the already regressing world economy shrink
further.

Australia's Downer referred to the Islamic militant group
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), which he said had links with Osama bin
Laden's al-Qaeda network, as a threat to regional stability.

"An organization like JI, spread from the southern Philippines
to Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia is the greatest terrorist
threat to Asia," he said.

Downer said Australia was working closely with Southeast Asian
nations to crush the group as soon as possible.

United Nations AIDS chief Peter Piot warned that HIV/AIDS
could hamper economic growth with "tens of millions" in Asia
infected over the next decade if the region failed to move fast
to curb the epidemic.

There are now some seven million Asians infected with HIV/AIDS
but the epidemic is spreading "very fast" in the region due to
denial and inaction especially in rural and provincial areas, he
said.

"If business continues as usual in Asia, then we will go to
tens of millions (of infections over the next 10 years)," he
said.

"In China alone, one can say safely that there will be at
least 10 million, maybe 15 million."

Piot urged the corporate sector to shoulder the cost of
fighting the epidemic after government funds dwindled in the
aftermath of the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.

John Kivits, Standard Chartered Bank's chief executive in
Malaysia, said the HIV/AIDS epidemic was a "big economic issue"
for businesses and could translate into significant costs.

In Africa for instance, he said the bank recorded an average
10 percent absenteeism daily by its staff due to HIV/AIDS related
matters and its operation costs in Zimbabwe had risen by 11-13
percent due to the disease.

Meanwhile, Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said at the
conference that the threat of war in the Middle East threatens to
slow the progress of global trade talks already hindered by sharp
differences between rich and poor nations.

Efforts by the World Trade Organization to further liberalize
global trade will be hurt by the current uncertainties facing the
economy.

That poses further troubles to world trade negotiations that
frequently have been troubled by lingering concerns among poor
nations that market-opening measures will mainly favor the rich
traders, she said.

"Nobody is going to open the market if they are not sure
whether their domestic economy is going to be destructed,"
Rafidah said at the three-day conference, which closes Tuesday.