Let’s pool our resources, urges Thaksin
Reports By JAGDEV SINGH SIDHU, SHAHANAAZ HABIB, NICK LEONG, JACQUELINE ANN SURIN, P.W. THONG and SUSAN TAM
THAI Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has called for collective and concerted efforts to create a New Asian Realism that will return the region to “the days of prosperity”.
Lamenting the fact that Asia has started to lag behind other regions despite the continent’s vast potential, Thaksin said he would be fully committed to returning prosperity to Asia by combining the region’s diverse strengths for mutual benefit.
“But this is not a one-man task. Nor is it any single country’s efforts.
“It is only through collective and concerted efforts of all of us in Asia that we will have any chance of achieving the New Asian Realism,” he said when delivering the keynote address at the East Asian Economic Summit 2002.
Thaksin said although more than half the world’s population lived in resource-rich Asia and the region accounted for a quarter of the world’s exports and global Gross Domestic Product, poverty was still a major problem for many Asian countries.
Among others, Thaksin said the recently formed Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), initiated by Thailand, was one forum for collective and concerted efforts by the 18 Asian member countries to achieve prosperity.
He said the ACD, as an Asia-wide forum, would fill the gaps left by existing sub-regional groupings.
“It is a capacity building process based on trade, economic, social and possibly political cooperation dialogues, relying upon the flexibility and comfort level of all its participants,” he added.
Thaksin also said it was time for the region to develop an Asian bond market as a financial instrument to maximise its potential and prevent exploitation by others.
One way to do this, he said, was to mobilise 1% of each country’s reserves on a voluntary basis to establish a fund to purchase bonds issued by Asian countries.
“Asia also needs a reliable Asian credit rating agency to have a transparent and impartial analysis of bond issuers and credit ratings,” he said.
Thaksin, who delivered his speech entirely in English, also praised Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew for making the Asian perspective better appreciated within and outside Asia.
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