ADB to help Asian economies to address world financial crisis
5/11/2008 16:28
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help Asian economies deal with the
world financial crisis, director of the ADB Economic Integration Office Lee
Jong-whan said in Trujillo , Peru yesterday.
Lee made the pledge at a meeting
of high level finance officials from the 21 economies of the Asia Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC), which focused on hot issues such as soaring prices
and food shortages.
The director said the ADB has resources to help Asia's
economies tackle the financial crisis together.
Lee said the bank can create
adequate conditions for solving the financial problems of each economy.
The
regrettable experience of the Asian crisis in 1997-1998 was that it generated
the chain devaluation of currencies of many countries in the region.
The ADB
in its bid to lessen financial risks would focus on "mechanisms linked to the
capital market and banks, which would tend to strengthen national currencies,
and it would help investors and monitor the measures that each country takes,"
Lee said.
The meeting of finance ministers is expected to pave the way for
the annual APEC summit on Nov. 22-23 in Lima, Peru, where 21 leaders of the
member economies will discuss the ongoing financial turmoil and a plan for a new
Asia-Pacific free trade community.
Xinhua
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