Transcript Dr. Akinori Seki - Asia Economic Forum (AEF)

Key Issues For Asia in Post-Global
Economic Crisis
Akinori Seki
President, The Sasakawa Peace Foundation
& Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia
The 5th Asia Economic Forum
“Asia’s Challenges and Opportunities During the Time of
Global Economic Crisis and Financial Crisis”
Raffles Hotel Le Royal
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia
April 6th, 2009
1
John Gunther, 1942
 “Asia is a land of illiteracy and disease, where
people are burdened by a sense of looking
backward, not forward, and they were
generally less competent than Europeans.”
He then concluded that, "One can talk of
Europe, but not Asia."
2
Global Financial Crisis and Asia
 Because of the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis, Asian
countries’ exposure to subprime financial crisis is at
the minimum.
 However, the crisis spread to the real economy in
Asian countries since the 4th quarter of 2008
because of the drastic fall of exports
 Growth rate of developing Asia is expected to be less
than 5 percent in 2009.
 If China and India are excluded, the growth rate of
developing Asia is expected to be less than 2 percent
in 2009
3
How Asian countries could ride out of the
current economic crisis
 Fiscal stimulus package to stimulate domestic
demand
 What are the effects:
– Depend on the size of the stimulus package in
relation to GDP
– Depend on the size of the multiplier in each
country
 Decoupling
4
Key Issues
 Enhancing intra-regional investment, trade
and demand
 Promotion of Asian Currency Unit (ACU) to
lower the volatility of exchange rate and
transaction costs
 Market and its limitation, and thus the need to
strengthen the non-profit sectors to
compliment the market and the role of the
state
5
Key Issues (cont.)
 New approaches to promote economic
growth
– Micro-credit facilities for income generation
– Social entrepreneurship for enhancing the
non-profit sectors
– Corporate social responsibility in social and
economic development, and environment
protection
6
Priorities Areas
 Education
 Primary health care
 Agriculture
 Physical infrastructures,
 Environment
 Human resources development and capacity
building
 Good governance
7