Can East Asia Emulate European Economic Integration?
I. Overview
After a financial crisis broke out in Thailand in July, 1997 and started speeding
to other East Asian countries, Japan proposed creation of an Asian monetary fund (AMF)
as a framework for promoting financial cooperation and policy coordination in the region.
A regional monetary fund, it was argued, would provide a means of defence, in addition
to the IMF lending facilities, against future financial crises in East Asia. Although the
proposal received a positive response from a number of East Asian countries, it was
shelved at the objection of the U.S., EU, and the IMF. The AMF idea was revived again
when the finance ministers of ASEAN states plus China, Japan, and South Korea
(ASEAN+3) agreed on May 6 2000 in Chiang Mai, Thailand to establish a system of
swap arrangements within the ASEAN+3 countries in what is known as the Chiang Mai
Initiative (CMI).
Since then deputy financial ministers of the ASEAN+3 have negotiated the
details of the initiative to produce a basic framework of the ASEAN Swap Arrangement
(ASA) and Bilateral Swap Arrangements (BSAs) and Repo agreement among the thirteen
countries. The framework was approved at the meeting of the deputies on November 7,
2000 in Beijing. A progress report on the CMI was then reported to the summit meeting
of the thirteen countries two weeks later.
The CMI swap arrangements are designed to provide liquidity support for the
member countries that experience short-run balance of payment deficits in order to
prevent an extreme crisis or systemic failure in a country and subsequent regional
contagion as occurred in the recent East Asian financial crisis.
Emergency support facilities such as the CMI, similar in nature to other regional
and international “lender of last resort” facilities, are primarily for systemic purposes and
as such would likely be used very infrequently. Since the intent of the CMI is to be
proactive, there is a need to define a mutually agreed framework for inter country
cooperation amongst the ASEAN and ASEAN+3, that can quickly and effectively
implement emergency assistance at required levels when a need arises. Moreover, a
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group approach would ensure that any conditionality associated with the financial
assistance would be consistent across countries.