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Editorial: Hosting two world meetings
Indonesia is again to enter the world news just three weeks after what the international media claims to be an impressive example of peaceful general elections in the world’s third biggest democracy
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Indonesia is again to enter the world news just three weeks after what the international media claims to be an impressive example of peaceful general elections in the world’s third biggest democracy.
Around 4,000 government leaders, businesspeople, analysts and representatives from academia, civil society organizations, and media from around the world will gather in Bali for about four days for the 42nd annual meeting of the Manila-based Asian Development Bank beginning Saturday.
Manado, the capital of North Sulawesi province, will host the World Ocean Conference for five days beginning May 11 to discuss the role of oceans in climate change and the impact of climate change on oceans.
At a first glance, the two international meetings seem unrelated as they are held by two completely different organizations. But the agendas of the two conferences are very much inter-connected: the current economic crisis and how the climate change will impact on the economy.
In fact, one session at the ADB meeting will be devoted to discussions on the just released report of an ADB study on climate change, which concludes, among other things, that climate change threatens the economies of Southeast Asian countries.
Certainly, the ADB meeting will attract more attention as it will address the impact of the global financial and economic crisis on Asia and discuss programs to further empower ADB to help develop the economies of its 67 member countries.
The annual meeting will also provide an opportunity, through seminars, for member country officials and businesspeople and private-sector analysts to hold formal and informal consultations that could help shape economic, financial and social policies and programs in the Asian region.
Yet more important is that the 10 ASEAN countries and their dialog partners – Japan, China and South Korea – will finalize in Bali the US$120 billion Asia pool of foreign funds, which can be tapped under bilateral swap agreements as second-line defense against speculative attacks against their national currencies. Indonesia, for example, has doubled the amount of funds under its bilateral swap agreement with Japan to US$12 billion.
Another program in the ADB meeting agenda designed to help Asian countries address the global credit crunch as a credit guarantee mechanism for corporate bonds.
Asian finance ministers and central bank governors also will review the progress made under ADB’s Long-Term Strategic Framework for 2008-2020, which focuses on inclusive economic growth, environmentally sustainable growth and regional integration and poverty reduction agenda.
Asian economies have indeed been increasingly vital to each other and the world and their output today roughly equals that of Europe and North America combined and could even be 50 percent larger than theirs in terms of purchasing power parity by 2020.
Asia’s intraregional trade has expanded with parts and components trade playing especially a larger role. To put it simply, the case for greater regional integration in Asia is broad, deep and compelling and ADB has a vital role in coordinating this process through its policy dialogues with its 67 member countries.
Indonesia, as the largest country and economy in ASEAN, certainly has a major role in the process as each step towards the Asian regional integration requires innovation, leadership and support from the major economies in Asia.
