Promoting financial security

While this informative editorial invites first of all  Asean countries to look to regional markets and intra-regional cooperation, its content is further enlarged and  dedicated in general  to Asian countries  who have to sustain current growth rates in spite of  external risks, including precarious financial security.

However, the real  focus of the editorial seems to be limited only to the ten  Asean member states.In this respect, it is, indeed, realistic to assume  that Asean countries will  not coordinate their fiscal and monetary policies in the same way as  the European Union  members have decided to do very recently.Nevertheless, there are reasons to believe that major  financial issues  of common interest will be considered during the 2012 Summit of the  Asia - Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Vientiane, Laos, by the  48 partners of this forum, including 46 countries  from the two continents and the European Commission and the Asean Secretariat.

Meanwhile, as decided during the Asean Summit in Bali, in November  this  year, an agreement was reached to explore new and innovative initiatives to boost financial security  throughout the region and to convene a special Asean conference on this issue in 2012 which  will deal with the elaboration  of a concrete financial inclusion programme.

Ioan Voicu

Bangkok