'Asia must bolster cooperation to better tackle crisis'

Asia has made huge strides in regional cooperation since the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis but needs to strengthen its regional institutions if it is to effectively tackle the current global economic crisis and overcome future challenges, a seminar was told at the ADB's 42nd Annual Meeting in Bali.

The seminar titled "Enhancing Asian Institutions: ASEAN's Role for Regional Integration," attracted policymakers and economists to discuss how Asia could increase the effectiveness of its institutions to promote regionalism.

Panel participants, including ADB Vice President Xiaoyu Zhao, said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) should play a pivotal role in helping the region reap the rewards of closer cooperation in economic, environmental and social arenas.

"ASEAN is the most established regional organization today in Asia and it is well placed to be a hub of closer cooperation in the future as it provides an insight into how Asian regionalism might develop more broadly," said Zhao.

An enhanced ASEAN could also help Asia to speak with a strong, single voice when it deals with Governments and organizations outside the region and could strengthen the effectiveness of other regional fora such as the East Asia Summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the ASEAN+3, which groups ASEAN with the People's Republic of China, Japan and the Republic of Korea.

"The global economic crisis has created a major window of opportunity to strengthen regional economic institutions," said panel participant Andrew MacIntyre, Prof. of Political Science and Director of the Crawford School at the Australian National University.