Former Philippine President Fidel Ramos said that the time is
not ripe for launching a unified currency in Asia in Hainan on
Friday.
European countries realized the necessity of European
integration some 60 years ago, but it took Europe 45 years to
launch a unified currency, said Ramos, chairman of the Boao Forum
for Asia (BFA) Board of Directors.
Compared with European countries, Asia has a much shorter
history in promoting Asian integration and it is a "bit too early
to launch an Asian dollar now," said Ramos at a news conference of
the BFA 2004 annual conference, to be held Saturday and Sunday in
Hainan Province, south China.
The former Philippine president suggested "a basket of hard
Asian currencies" be used to settle problems caused by pegging
Asian currencies to the US dollar and euro.
"I hope participants attending the upcoming BFA annual
conference may also consider the possibility of launching such a
basket," said Ramos, stating that the proposal may help Asian
countries to solve problems by themselves instead of depending on
external forces.
According to Ramos, a firm advocate of Asian integration,
Europe, America and Asia are three pillar forces of the world
economy and America has formed an increasingly expanded "American
alliance" by integrating the North American Free Trade Agreement
countries and South and Central American countries.
Against the backdrop of a substantially integrated Europe and
America, Asia enjoyed a "bigger potential" in regional integration
though lagging behind the other two continents in alliance
activities, he said, adding that in fact, Asian integration would
be continuously strengthened on the BFA platform.
More than 1,000 participants from 35 countries and regions will
attend the BFA 2004 Annual Conference with 67 percent of the
participants from industrial and business circles, said the BFA
Secretariat Friday afternoon.
(Xinhua News Agency April 24, 2004)