Regional finance ministers are to meet on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) gathering this weekend to formally announce the setting up of joint funds to beat the global economic crisis.
Ministers from the 10-member ASEAN grouping, as well as key partners China, Japan and South Korea, will meet on the Indonesian island of Bali, said Somchai Sajjapongse from Thailand’s fiscal policy office.
“On May 2 there’s going to be a meeting of deputy finance ministers and on May 3 the ASEAN+3 finance ministers will meet,” Somchai said.
The meeting would formally announce the establishment of a regional emergency fund, he said.
The “Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization” is an expansion of the Chiang Mai Initiative — a bilateral currency swap scheme set up after the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
Under the new scheme, the swaps will be multilateral, making it easier for countries under stress to borrow emergency funds.
“Since the last meeting the ministers have agreed on the main elements of [it] and expect to have a conclusion at the Bali meeting,” he said.
Ministers plan to expand the fund from the original US$80 billion to US$120 billion, with China, Japan and Korea collectively providing 80 percent of the cash.
Of the three key partners, “China and Japan are competing to be the main contributor but the final decision is going to be on third of May,” Somchai added.
In its Asian Development Outlook in March, the bank said that the region’s developing economies would expand by just 3.4 percent this year, down from 6.3 percent last year and 9.5 percent in 2007.
“The short-term outlook for the region is bleak as the full impact of the severe recession in industrialized economies is transmitted to emerging markets,” ADB acting chief economist Jong-Wha Lee was recently quoted as saying.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS