ID :
54210
Tue, 04/07/2009 - 10:36
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/54210
The shortlink copeid
Tokyo Report: Japan Seeks Quiet Revival of AMF Plan
Tokyo, April 6 (Jiji Press)--The Japanese Finance Ministry is set to take the initiative in reviving a plan to create an Asian version of the International Monetary Fund but in a low-profile manner to avoid inviting renewed outright opposition from the United States.
Finance ministers from Japan, China, South Korea and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in February on a drastic
expansion of the Chiang Mai Initiative, a framework for a network of
bilateral currency swap agreements, paving the way to reopen efforts to
establish an Asian Monetary Fund, or AMF.
As the agreement involves no specific measures such as the creation
of a fund or a permanent organ, "the United States does not need to get
alarmed," a senior ministry official said.
Plans to establish an AMF were first initiated by Japanese Finance
Ministry officials to manage regional short-term liquidity problems during
the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
According to Eisuke Sakakibara, vice finance minister for
international affairs at that time and one of the architects of the scheme,
work started on the creation of an AMF after an international meeting in
Tokyo in August 1997 to bail out Thailand, with an eye toward seeking a
decision on its establishment at the annual meeting of the IMF and the World
Bank one and a half months later.
But the plan to set up an organ independent from the IMF without
U.S. participation met outright opposition from Washington and was withdrawn
at the last moment.
The plan was "too hasty" and more consensus-building negotiations
with the United States and China should have been made, Sakakibara, now a
professor at Tokyo's Waseda University, recalls in one of his books.
Following the aborted attempt, ASEAN Plus Three finance ministers
met in the northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai in May 2005 and agreed to
create a network of bilateral swap arrangements.
The agreement by the ministers in February called for bundling
bilateral arrangements into a multilateral framework and making the Chiang
Mai initiative worth 120 billion dollars, up from 80 billion dollars. In
addition, the establishment of an organ to monitor economic conditions of
member countries was agreed.
The latest accord will "certainly bring (the initiative) closer to
an AMF," says an official at an international financial institution.
Finance Ministry officials are split over when an AMF will be
realized. Some predict it will be set up within a few years, while others
say more than a decade will be needed.
"In any case, we will have to fight with the United States," a
senior ministry official says, adding that there will also be "bloody
battles" among Asian countries to take the initiative in establishing such a
body.
Tough negotiations are expected to lie ahead before Japan can win
consent from the United States and lead other Asian countries in setting up
an AMF.
Finance ministers from Japan, China, South Korea and the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations agreed in February on a drastic
expansion of the Chiang Mai Initiative, a framework for a network of
bilateral currency swap agreements, paving the way to reopen efforts to
establish an Asian Monetary Fund, or AMF.
As the agreement involves no specific measures such as the creation
of a fund or a permanent organ, "the United States does not need to get
alarmed," a senior ministry official said.
Plans to establish an AMF were first initiated by Japanese Finance
Ministry officials to manage regional short-term liquidity problems during
the Asian financial crisis of 1997.
According to Eisuke Sakakibara, vice finance minister for
international affairs at that time and one of the architects of the scheme,
work started on the creation of an AMF after an international meeting in
Tokyo in August 1997 to bail out Thailand, with an eye toward seeking a
decision on its establishment at the annual meeting of the IMF and the World
Bank one and a half months later.
But the plan to set up an organ independent from the IMF without
U.S. participation met outright opposition from Washington and was withdrawn
at the last moment.
The plan was "too hasty" and more consensus-building negotiations
with the United States and China should have been made, Sakakibara, now a
professor at Tokyo's Waseda University, recalls in one of his books.
Following the aborted attempt, ASEAN Plus Three finance ministers
met in the northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai in May 2005 and agreed to
create a network of bilateral swap arrangements.
The agreement by the ministers in February called for bundling
bilateral arrangements into a multilateral framework and making the Chiang
Mai initiative worth 120 billion dollars, up from 80 billion dollars. In
addition, the establishment of an organ to monitor economic conditions of
member countries was agreed.
The latest accord will "certainly bring (the initiative) closer to
an AMF," says an official at an international financial institution.
Finance Ministry officials are split over when an AMF will be
realized. Some predict it will be set up within a few years, while others
say more than a decade will be needed.
"In any case, we will have to fight with the United States," a
senior ministry official says, adding that there will also be "bloody
battles" among Asian countries to take the initiative in establishing such a
body.
Tough negotiations are expected to lie ahead before Japan can win
consent from the United States and lead other Asian countries in setting up
an AMF.
