Thailand urges joint front against money speculators
Thailand urges joint front against money speculators
BANGKOK (AFP): Beleaguered Thailand urged Southeast Asian
neighbors yesterday to close ranks against currency speculators
at next week's global monetary talks as turmoil assails regional
financial markets.
The call came as senior officials from the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held talks here ahead of Friday's
inaugural meeting of finance ministers from Asia and Europe which
will focus on the currency crisis.
"Yes, I would like to see that," Thai Finance Minister Thanong
Bidaya told reporters when asked whether ASEAN would adopt a
joint front against speculators at the IMF-World Bank talks in
Hong Kong.
Thanong said Bangkok realized that market forces had to be
"respected" in an era of increasing financial sector
liberalization, but said ways should be found to curb rampant
speculation and stabilize battered regional currencies.
"It is quite important that somehow... some mechanics and
techniques should be devised to stabilize the movements of all
these currencies," Thanong said.
He did not say what specific measures Thailand wanted to see
adopted to curb speculators who laid siege on regional currencies
after the central Bank of Thailand floated the baht on July 2.
Analysts say ASEAN is expected to urge the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank at the Hong Kong meeting
to devise ways of curbing largely U.S.-based offshore hedge funds
who led the attack.
Thailand floated the baht in an effective devaluation,
abandoning its exorbitant defense of the currency with its
economy in deep crisis under the weight of billions of dollars in
bad debt run up by the finance sector.
Southeast Asian financial markets have since gone into a
tailspin, with the Malaysian ringgit, the Indonesian rupiah and
the Philippine peso hitting record lows while even the normally
robust Singapore dollar has not been spared by currency
speculators.
Stock prices have fallen sharply with foreign investors
fleeing the region.
Senior officials Thursday agreed to pursue efforts to
institute an ASEAN currency swap arrangement that would come to
the aid of partners in need of liquidity at times of crisis,
delegates said.
Supachai Phistvanich, permanent secretary at the Thai ministry
of finance, said Brunei and Vietnam were not yet ready to join
such an arrangement but would study the proposal.
Supachai said the ASEAN senior officials' meeting discussed
the currency crisis, but refused to reveal substantive details
which he said were a "secret."
He said finance ministers from the regional grouping would
meet in Kuala Lumpur on December 2-3 in the run-up to an informal
summit to be hosted by the Malaysian capital to discuss
developments in the financial sector.
The meeting was reportedly proposed by Malaysia to discuss
concrete cooperation in the fight against what it has called
financial market "manipulation."
Thanong was due to meet with finance ministers from six other
ASEAN member-states for informal talks yesterday ahead of an
Asia-Europe meeting (ASEM) on financial sector cooperation.
Senior officials from the seven ASEAN members -- Brunei,
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam -- were holding preparatory talks here Thursday
afternoon. ASEAN also groups Myanmar and Laos, which are not a
part of the ASEM dialogue.
Thanong, who will chair the Asia-Europe finance ministers'
meeting, said delegates from the two continents would aim for
"constructive consultations" on ways to stabilize Southeast Asian
financial markets.