APPOINT MINISTER TO PROMOTE ASEAN, SAYS BANK GROUP CEO

BANGKOK, Feb 4 (Bernama) -– Asean member countries must have a minister to
promote and champion the grouping's causes within each country as the region
moves towards integration by 2015, CIMB group chief executive officer, Nazir Tun
Razak, said Wednesday.

"We know that the best of ideas will not be well-received unless it is
well-explained.

"Yet who is marketing Asean? And until we do, we shouldn't assume that the
public will resist regional economic integration," he told Thailand Management
Association's Top Talk here Wednesday.

Nazir said little would be reported on Asean except when government leaders
gathered at summits.

In between, he said, each government would tend to prioritise national
politics and projects.

He said Asean should change its logo and a rebranding exercise could be a
powerful expression of a new era.

"There is an urgent need to re-energise and transform the Asean agenda,"
he said.

Nazir the gruping's secretariat and governments needed to develop a deeper
Asean consciousness to face the hard realities of economic integration and in
the spirit of new age, adopt more aggressive and even unorthodox strategies.

"It is the Asian century. We will enjoy much more of if we team up as one
region in this new world order where size and speed of action matter more
than ever," he said.

He said there was an urgency for Asean to progress as an economic entity,
apart from dealing with the micro realities and got more aggressive at the macro
level.

"Can we not strategically capitalise on the strengths of each country today?
Malaysia's connectivity to the Middle East and leadership in Islamic finance
puts it in a prime position to attract petro-dollar investments into Asean yet
why is Singapore talking about becoming an Islamic finance hub?," he said.

Nazir said it would be not too soon to start leveraging on each other
through cross-national business cooperation and government incentives rather
than competing on all fronts.

"Of course, a lot of painful negotiations will be required and certainly
there are domestic political realities to manage," he said.

On the capital market, he said a lot more progress has been made but it has
been focused on the harmonisation of rules and regulations which were useful but
clearly the least contentious.

"The reality is that we need a merger of national exchanges to stay relevant
in the new securities landscape. Unfortunately, no one dares to tackle this
issue and some national exchanges are instead spending more time courting
non-Asean exchanges," he said.

Asean, he said, also needed to create regional institutions that would help
develop its capital market.

"It is logical for there to be at least one Asean rating agency, with
economies of scale to build stronger internal capabilities and enhance
credibility to stand tall at the global level," he said.

On the banking sector, he said, regional banks would be catalysts for the
greater flows of goods and services.

"The truth, however, is that we remain frustrated with the lack of
commitment by national governments, bureaucracies and the public at large to
Asean. We have faced numerous challenges in trying to regionalise our business,"
he said.

-- BERNAMA