Catalog

Now’s the Time
ADB Review [ July - August 2004 ]

ASEAN+3 should consider using strong growth to push for greater regional cooperation

JEJU, REPUBLIC OF KOREA

The bright economic outlook for Asia’s economies presents an opportune time to consider and act upon regional cooperation initiatives to enhance resilience to future shocks, ADB President Tadao Chino told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)+3 Finance Ministers Meeting in Jeju.

In a statement at the meeting, held in parallel with the opening of the 37th Annual Meeting of ADB’s Board of Governors, he said that since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, regional cooperation had gone beyond trade and investment to include monetary and financial cooperation.

This new cooperation fell into three broad categories: greater information exchange and policy dialogue, reserve sharing and pooling, and regional bond market development.

“ASEAN+3 is now approaching a critical point with these initiatives,” he said. “The key issue is how the next steps under these regional initiatives should be sequenced, and at what speed they should proceed.” But Mr. Chino added that care should be taken that these regional efforts are complementary and do not compete with global and national level initiatives.

“It is important to recognize that, ultimately, national initiatives are central to resilience building, with both regional and global initiatives playing a significant supportive role,” he said.

He added that information exchange constitutes an important stepping stone toward regional monetary and financial cooperation and there is a strong case for strengthening this.

“One option is to institutionalize the process by establishing an independent, technical body—a regional policy dialogue unit—and a higher-level decision-making body, a regional surveillance group, over the next two years or so,” he said.

In a joint communiqué, the ministers— from the 10 ASEAN members (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam)—and People’s Republic of China, Japan, and Republic of Korea agreed to further review the Chiang Mai Initiative to explore ways of enhancing its effectiveness.

They agreed that further discussion on regional cooperation by a research group should continue in 2005.

“We are pleased with the overall progress achieved under the ASEAN+3 framework and reiterated our commitment toward forging closer financial and monetary cooperation in this region,” the communiqué said.

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