"Emerging Asian Regionalism: Partnership for Shared Prosperity"
Statement by
Haruhiko Kuroda
President, Asian Development Bank
At the Book Launch
3 May 2008
Madrid, Spain
I. Introduction
Honorable Deputy Minister Abimanyu, distinguished guests, ladies, and gentlemen:
This evening I have the pleasure of launching a book that examines the emergence of Asian regionalism. The focus of this flagship study—Emerging Asian Regionalism: A Partnership for Shared Prosperity—is on how Asian countries are increasingly working together to foster prosperity and share it within the region and with the rest of the world.
In the decade since the Asian financial crisis, we have come to know the essential value of regional economic cooperation and integration. Cultivated from Asia’s rich political, cultural, and economic soil, regionalism is indeed becoming the hallmark of development well into this century. Through regionalism, Asian countries are boosting trade and investment, building financial stability, and collaborating on finding solutions to regional and global crises.
II. Emerging Asian Regionalism: Partnership for Shared Prosperity
A good portion of Asia’s recovery these past 10 years is a result of growing economic integration and cooperation. Asian regionalism is increasingly attracting the attention of observers outside our region and, more importantly, policy makers and the public they serve. The trend is gaining momentum through enhanced dialogue between governments, firms, and people. Intra-regional tourism and growing intra-regional business relations contribute to the momentum, as do formal meetings of Asian government officials, ministers, political leaders, academics, the private sector, NGOs, and other representatives of the civil society.
In Asia today, we can see intraregional trade and investment expanding rapidly, financial markets becoming closer and more efficient, and economies more interdependent. Cross-border infrastructure projects are becoming more frequent, bringing Asian cultures and people closer. More and more we are tackling issues that transcend boundaries to provide regional public goods in areas such as the environment and health, in consonance with global trends.
In response to the Asian financial crisis, for example, ASEAN+3 countries forged the Chiang Mai Initiative, a currency swap arrangement to ensure financial and monetary stability in case of future crises. ASEAN+3 countries also started the Asian Bond Markets Initiative to facilitate recycling of regional savings into regional investment.
III. The Asian Paradigm
Thus far, economic integration in Asia has followed a market-friendly approach. It is a multitrack, multispeed, step-by-step process that allows for a healthy dose of pragmatism among collegial groups of countries and territories. This is a workable approach for such a vast region that embraces various cultures and encompasses many economies with very different endowments of natural resources and production factors.
This pragmatic approach to regionalism holds several advantages. First, any group of territories, countries, or subregions can integrate according to their particular level of development and the specific opportunities that regional cooperation offers. Second, as partnerships strengthen, smaller groups are more likely to merge into larger ones leading to wider and deeper relationships across a wider geographical or structural distance. Third, this approach ensures that Asia’s economic integration remains market-friendly, which means that its framework continues to be responsive to private sector needs, as expanding business and open markets power Asian economies ahead.
Subregional cooperation is the building block of Asia’s regional integration, and a logical way to move forward, given the region’s diversity and size. Whether in the Greater Mekong Subregion, ASEAN, or ASEAN+3, the scope and speed of regional cooperation will inevitably differ. And if the “integrating” region refers to areas such as South Asia, Central Asia, or the Pacific Island nations, the scope and speed of cooperation will be even more different. As deep partnerships are developed within subregions and bridges are built to cross subregional boundaries, a wider pan-Asian cooperation and integration will follow in the future.
The dynamic and outward-looking style of Asian regionalism will have a significant impact in our increasingly globalized economy. Regionalism can be a stabilizing factor when shocks arise, whether they come from within the region or outside. But it is also important to recognize that being pragmatic and flexible does not mean taking a laissez faire attitude. In fact, Asian leaders face the daunting challenge of managing the emergence of regionalism. This requires not just vision, but also effective communication and, when needed, policy coordination or the creation of common regional institutions.
IV. About the study
It is our hope that readers will find the book we are launching tonight to be a very useful study on Asian regionalism. Whether working together on regional public goods, managing natural disasters and epidemics, easing trade in products and services, moving capital and people, or building common positions in international forums, emerging Asian regionalism will rely on the sort of experience, research, and analysis that this study provides.
The book does three important things. First, it explains how Asia developed an inclination for regionalism, especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Second, it identifies areas where cooperation and integration have succeeded. It quantifies the intensity of regionalism in these areas by developing a set of specific indicators, and discusses where the foundations for further advances in regionalism lie. Third, by suggesting how the architecture for Asian regionalism can take shape in the years to come, the book takes the necessary leap to define the way forward
In short, this book explains how Asian regionalism offers a platform for economic development that is good for individual economies, good for the region, and ultimately good for the world. In other words, the regionalism that is emerging in Asia today is a partnership that can ensure the region’s continued peaceful progress. It is a partnership that can help share Asia’s increasing prosperity both within the region and with the global economy.
This flagship study is the outcome of a close collaboration among ADB’s knowledge departments, led by our Office of Regional Economic Integration. It builds on the Eminent Persons Group report of March 2007, which suggests that ADB shift its focus from a primarily national one to a regional and ultimately global focus. It also contributes to the achievement of ADB’s long-term strategic framework by helping define the relevance of regional integration and cooperation as a platform for poverty reduction and promotion of economic development.
Let me acknowledge and thank all those who have worked hard to complete this study in time for our Annual Meeting here in Madrid. The study was led by a team of ADB experts and it has greatly benefited from the work and contributions of many people outside of ADB. I am glad to see that some of them are here tonight. I deeply appreciate the work of our excellent team of authors, advisers, reviewers, and editors.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Tonight we are privileged to hear comments on this study from one of the most respected Asian policy makers and economists, Honorable Anggito Abimanyu, Deputy Finance Minister of Indonesia.
How Asian regionalism evolves will affect the lives of the 3.7 billion people who inhabit the region, and will impact the world as a whole. Asia’s contribution to the global economy is growing faster than that of any other region. The emergence of Asian regionalism, powered by new generations of Asians who have been raised amid exceptional economic progress and cooperation among nations, will help establish a lasting prosperity and peace.
Thank you.
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