Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) Minister Christina Liu (劉憶如) yesterday urged the formation of an exchange rate alliance among Asian countries and economies to help the region face new challenges deriving from variables in exchange rates.
Liu made the remarks in an address to the this year’s CommonWealth Economic Forum organized by CommonWealth Magazine, titled “The Rise of New Asia: Asia’s Conflicts, Growth and the New Future.”
Liu said that since the exchange rate issue is seen as a major variable in the development of Asian countries now that they have put the 2008-2009 global economic crunch behind them, seeking a higher level of stability in currency exchange rates was imperative.
“Forming a regional alliance on currency exchange rates would be a practical option to keep rates stable,” Liu said.
For such stability, the US dollar should have greater flexibility, as well as the yuan, which now has a vital effect on the exchange rate stability in the entire Asia-Pacific region, she said.
“Other Asian economies will not be able to sustain the impact should the yuan run against market trends,” she said.
Angang Hu (胡鞍鋼), director of the Center for China Studies at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, told the forum that the yuan should be allowed to appreciate, saying that appreciation would help it regionalize and globalize.
“Once the yuan is in greater demand regionally and globally, -China’s gross domestic product will eventually boom, on a scale surpassing that of the United States,” Hu said.
He said a stable yuan was in line with China’s interests, as well as with those of Taiwanese companies operating in China. He also said he would report on Liu’s comments to Beijing.
Motoshige Itoh, a professor of economics at Tokyo University, said the yuan’s fluctuations were now the focus of global concern.
Asian nations and economies should jointly establish a regional fund along the lines of the IMF as a way to stabilize regional currency exchange rates, he said.
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