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【CGTN】Asia needs cooperation to tackle rising risks: experts


The "1997 Asian Financial Crisis: 25 Years On" symposium is held by China Development Research Foundation in Beijing, China, August 19, 2022. /China Development Research FoundationEven though the world is experiencing unprecedented changes, the 1997 Asian financial crisis provides important lessons. Principally, it is essential for regional economies to join hands and prepare for financial risks, experts said at a symposium held in Beijing on Friday.


Today, financial fragility intensified when high inflation, rising commodity prices, and government debt weighed on the real economy, Zhu Min, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and also a former deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund, said at the "1997 Asian Financial Crisis: 25 Years On" symposium held by China Development Research Foundation.


"Once the crisis happened, it quickly became global," Zhu said. It spread quickly after emerging in Thailand, striking most of East Asia and extending to impact the whole world.


The unprecedented changes faced by the world today are mainly represented by rising emerging economies such as China and the tension caused by the U.S. attempting to contain China's development, Dai Xianglong, former governor of China's central bank, said at the symposium. Moreover, he agreed with Zhu that global financial risks have been accumulating.


Reviewing the lessons of the 1997 crisis, experts said that Asian economies should deepen cooperation and stick to open and inclusive multilateralism.


"The 1997 crisis created momentum for deeper East Asian cooperation. Still, some of the most extensive cooperation ideas floated then, particularly regarding Asian regional financial architecture, have remained unfinished," Jusuf Wanandi, senior fellow and co-founder of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies of Indonesia, said at the event via video link.


He suggested that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and East Asia establish an East Asia Disaster Management Fund (DMF) to alleviate the region's vulnerability to different disasters. The DMF would be responsible for profiling regional disaster risks, providing the probability of catastrophes, and tallying expected losses.


Political trust is also crucial to economic and trade cooperation, stressed Zheng Yongnian, professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, in a virtual speech at the symposium.


China fulfilled its responsibility as a leading regional power in the 1997 crisis by not depreciating the yuan. Today its sense of responsibility and leadership are fundamental for regional stability in Asia, Zheng said, noting that some of China's efforts in recent years, such as the launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative, are in line with multilateralism.