S. Korea to help forge global financial oversight improvement plan: official

SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will work with other countries to help
forge a financial oversight improvement plan designed to prevent recurrence of
the current global crisis, a government official said Sunday.
Choi Jong-ku, head of the finance ministry's international finance bureau, told
reporters that the decision by Group of 20 leaders to strengthen regulatory
regimes of financial institutions in the wake of the Lehman Brothers debacle
opens new opportunities for Seoul.
The leaders who met in Washington over the weekend assigned their finance
ministers to "initiate processes and a timeline" for concrete proposals for
enhanced oversight and regulatory regimes by the end of March. They also called
for another round of meetings in Europe by April 30 "to review the implementation
of the principles and decisions agreed today."
"The burden of helping formulate such processes has fallen on the shoulders of
the three co-chairs of the endeavor that include South Korea, Britain and
Brazil," the official said. Brazil is the current chair of the G20, with the
group to be chaired by Britain next year and South Korea taking the helm in 2010.
He added that all efforts will be centered on helping to forge an action plan
that is acceptable to all countries.
"The greatest lesson learned in the current financial crisis is the importance of
international cooperation," he said.
He said that the gathering in Washington made clear that the Group of 20 has
emerged as the center of global economic policymaking but argued that this did
not mean that it would replace the International Monetary Fund.
"The G20 leaders concurred that measures should be taken to better reflect the
voices of developing countries," he said.
On South Korea's role as co-chair, the official said the country will do its best
to reflect the voices of developing economies while at the same time help contain
unprecedented levels of uncertainty that have rocked the country's financial
institutions.
Seoul has been trying to alleviate liquidity fears that have threatened banks and
manufacturers alike.
"There had been considerable debate inside the government on accepting the
co-chair position, but while the task will be difficult, it could hold great
opportunities for the country," he said.
The G20 consists of South Korea, the U.S., Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada,
China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa,
Turkey, the European Union, and EU members Britain, France, Germany and Italy.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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