Upcoming ASEM to discuss cooperation
Upcoming ASEM to discuss cooperation
BANGKOK (Reuter): Finance ministers from Europe and Asia will meet in Bangkok this week to discuss the currency crisis in Southeast Asia and talk about improved cooperation and investment between the regions, officials said yesterday.
The summit will be the first time that finance ministers from the two regions have met under the auspices of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), set up to strengthen the perceived weak link in the tripolar relationship between Asia, Europe and North America.
An official at the European Commission office in Bangkok said the ASEM finance ministers were to discuss the regional financial crisis, the introduction of a single European currency and the upcoming annual conference of the World Bank/IMF in Hong Kong.
A Thai official said the ASEM meeting would focus mainly on ways to improve cooperation between the regions, as a follow-up to last year's inaugural ASEM summit in Bangkok.
"This is the first meeting between (finance ministers of) the European side and the Asian side," said Pongpanu Svetarundra, director of the Thai Ministry of Finance's international economic policy division.
"It is a brief meeting, and we do not expect anything drastic," he said. "The reason we are having it is to keep up the process of further co-operation."
Pongpanu said the finance ministers were also expected to discuss ways to increase investment between the regions, European financing for infrastructure development in Southeast Asia and co-operation in customs administration and developing Asia's financial sector.
On Thursday night, ministers and finance officials from 15 European nations, plus those from Japan, South Korea and China, are due to arrive for the ASEM meeting. The talks will continue on Friday.
Among other key finance ministers due to attend are Japan's Hiroshi Mitsuzuka, Germany's Theo Waigel and Britain's Gordon Brown.
Leaders from the 15-member European Union and 10 Asian nations last year held a landmark summit in Bangkok that emphasized the need to forge stronger economic ties between the regions.
The leaders stressed a desire to increase two-way investment and to liberalize and facilitate trade.
The summit was an effort to strengthen Europe's ties with Asia, which remain weak compared to the influence North America wields through the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum.
Senior finance officials from seven Southeast Asian countries, many of which have been hard hit by de facto devaluations of their currencies and tumbling stock markets the past two months, are expected to discuss the region's financial crisis in an informal meeting on Wednesday, with ministers holding talks on Thursday.
Ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries attending the Thursday meetings are also expected to hold bilateral talks, particularly with Thai leaders, to discuss the region's economic problems.
A Malaysian official said Finance Minister Anwar Ibrahim planned to meet Thai counterpart Thanong Bidaya and Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh during his visit.
Thailand has been hit hardest by the currency crisis, which began in July when the government allowed the baht to float after a bruising battle with speculators. After the baht crashed, the government sought help from the International Monetary Fund, which brokered a $17.2-billion bailout package to help boost the economy.
Thailand's economic crisis has had a domino effect on the region, with the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia all suffering de facto currency devaluations of between 15 and 25 percent.