Asia Pulse -Asean Finance Ministers

[tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Reply-To: "TIN KYI" <tinkyi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Asia Pulse -Asean Finance Ministers to Join Summit for First Time

Friday, November 12 6:40 PM SGT

Asean Finance Ministers to Join Summit for First Time
MANILA, Nov 12 Asia Pulse - Asean finance ministers will join for the first
time the joint ministerial meeting (JMM) of the 3rd Asean leaders informal
summit Manila will host on November 24-28 this year.
Normally dominated by economic and foreign ministers, the finance ministers
are expected to help draw up measures aimed at sustaining the region's
growth following last year's Asian currency turmoil.

Filipino diplomats said that as the host, the Philippines had deemed it
essential to include finance ministers in this year's conference.

"The JMM will be an opportunity for three important sectoral ministers to
intensify their coordination and synergy to ensure the region's economic
recovery and sustained growth," says Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon.

A special JMM declaration outlining proposed programmes of action to attain
this goal would be presented to the Asean leaders and made available to the
public after the meeting.

The special JMM is among the major events in this year's summit to be held
at the state-owned Philippines International Convention Centre in Manila.

The summit will assemble the heads of state and government of the 10-member
Asean - the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore,
Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Also attending are the heads of state of Asean's three dialogue partners -
South Korea, Japan and China - who will join their Asean counterparts in a
free-wheeling discussion on common issues without the need for a formal
agenda.

A list of topics, however, is usually prepared to serve as a guide for the
discussions by the leaders.

The Philippines is the third Asean country to host the Asean leaders
informal summit after Indonessia and Malaysia.

Myanmar, which joined Asean only in 1997, was supposed to host this year's
summit but it begged off for some reasons and passed it on to the
Philippines following the alphabetical order.

Diplomats said this year's summit would focus on the regional economy and
its prospects for sustained growth.

President Joseph Estrada is expected to propose the setting up of a common
market in the Asia-Pacific to boost cooperation in the region and serve as a
"building block for the global trading system".

In various fora, he argued that a common market would not only guarantee
stable and equitable growth and regional peace, but would also help smaller
economies reinforce their position in the international trading system.

Estrada also highlighted the importance of providing the poor with social
safety nets to shield them from the harsh side effects of growth brought
about by the global free economy.

He had also called for a global financial architecture and structural
reforms that would strengthen corporate governance systems, reduce barriers
to competition and prevent a recurrence of the Asian economic crisis.