ID :
174119
Fri, 04/08/2011 - 13:29
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http://m.oananews.org//node/174119
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Thailand joins ASEAN finance ministers' meeting in Indonesia
BALI, April 8 (TNA) - Thailand is joining other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) for an ASEAN finance ministers' meeting--which kicked off on Friday in Indonesia, the current ASEAN chair.
ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan also attended the regional meeting in Bali, together with World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is a former Indonesian finance minister, and officials from the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Top agenda of the regional forum include capital controls to shield the region's booming economies from destabilising "hot money" inflows. Asia has become a magnet for capital inflows seeking better returns in the wake of Europe's debt crisis--which has then spread to Portugal and other developing economies. But much of the inflowing foreign capital has been volatile portfolio investment which can be withdrawn just as quickly as they were injected, raising fears for affecting regional economic stability and even the global economic recovery.
Issues on regional food security and progress toward the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), with more than 500 million consumers, by 2015 are also expected to be raised before the ongoing ASEAN finance ministers' meeting.
The 10-nation ASEAN economy, comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, grew at some five per cent on average last year, up from 1.5 per cent in 2009 in the aftermath of the renewed global financial crisis. (TNA)
ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan also attended the regional meeting in Bali, together with World Bank managing director Sri Mulyani Indrawati, who is a former Indonesian finance minister, and officials from the US-based International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Manila-based Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Top agenda of the regional forum include capital controls to shield the region's booming economies from destabilising "hot money" inflows. Asia has become a magnet for capital inflows seeking better returns in the wake of Europe's debt crisis--which has then spread to Portugal and other developing economies. But much of the inflowing foreign capital has been volatile portfolio investment which can be withdrawn just as quickly as they were injected, raising fears for affecting regional economic stability and even the global economic recovery.
Issues on regional food security and progress toward the establishment of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), with more than 500 million consumers, by 2015 are also expected to be raised before the ongoing ASEAN finance ministers' meeting.
The 10-nation ASEAN economy, comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, grew at some five per cent on average last year, up from 1.5 per cent in 2009 in the aftermath of the renewed global financial crisis. (TNA)
