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ASEAN
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2000-03-23 19:05:00-05
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Asean to discuss Monetary Policy with North Asia
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Asian monetary fund would help stabilize region, prevent crash of 1997-98
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Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in Brunei are set to meet with China, South Korea and Japan to foster closer regional cooperation in monetary policy. The talks with the North Asian nations, will precede the presentation on Saturday of an economic surveillance report. The report, the third in a series, will examine economic and financial data within the 10-nation alliance to help prevent future crises. The second report, issued last year, concluded that some countries needed to improve the examination of macroeconomic data and short-term capital flows. Asian nations, following the 1997-98 collapse, have sought a more visible presence on the world stage. A proposal for Japan to lead an Asian monetary fund, was shot down by the United States, which said the fund might undermine the financial discipline imposed by the International Monetary Fund as a condition for lending. In its place, Japan offered bilateral support to Asian nations through its Miyazawa fund, a $30 billion loan program to ease foreign exchange shortages. Tokyo is also offering to guarantee bond issues by Asean nations to raise funds, in an attempt to make the yen a reserve currency for the region. Asean members are: Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
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