The World Bank pledged on Wednesday to help Asian nations hit by financial turmoil, but ruled out immediate prospects for a funding facility for Southeast Asia to cope with the crisis.
“We stand ready to support all of our member countries across East Asia to deal with the challenges arising from the financial crisis,” said Jim Adams, the World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific regional vice president.
He said however the bank did not expect a regional fund to be set up for the purpose following a statement by Philippine President Gloria Arroyo that a “standby facility” would be established to help Southeast Asian nations in need of cash.
Arroyo had said in Manila on Wednesday that East Asian finance ministers “reached an understanding to establish” the facility during talks last week on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank in Washington.
She said the World Bank had “indicated” it would commit funds to the facility following global turmoil sparked by a US mortgage crisis. One news report quoted her as saying the bank would provide US$10 billion.
“While we do not anticipate the establishment of a regional facility and have not discussed commitments of funds at the regional level, numerous discussions with individual governments were held” at the meetings, Adams said.
The talks were “on the impacts of the financial crisis and possible ways we might be able to provide support at the country level,” he said.
The World Bank, Adams said, was supporting initiatives of ASEAN members to share information and develop a “coordinated response” to the financial crisis.
Aside from the Philippines, ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The region was embroiled in a serious financial crisis in 1997 to 1998 and some countries had sought IMF and World Bank help.
Although reforms in East Asian economies resulting from the crisis a decade ago made them more resilient to the impacts of the current global turbulence, they must be prepared to deal with any effects of the turmoil, Adams said.
The IMF said separately on Wednesday that it “supports the efforts of the ASEAN countries to strengthen regional cooperation to promote economic and financial stability.”
“While we see Asian economies as being well positioned to weather the current turmoil in financial markets, the IMF stands ready to provide funding quickly to its members who might need liquidity support,” a fund spokeswoman said.
“The fund will also be closely engaged in the discussions among the countries and multilateral institutions on the crisis response,” she said.
The World Bank also said on Wednesday that it had the financial capacity to “comfortably double” its middle-income lending arm to developing countries in case of any additional demand because of the turmoil.
Lending under the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development was US$13.5 billion last fiscal year.
The World Bank said its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), was considering setting up a special fund that would provide equity to recapitalize small to medium-sized banks in poor countries with insufficient government capacity to help inoculate them from the global turmoil.
The IFC, it said, might contribute around US$1 billion and seek to raise another US$2 billion or more from sources such as commercial banks.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS