Narinjara news

ASIAN MINISTER MEET IN RANGOON NEXT WEEK

RANGOON, March 30: Finance minister and senior central bank officials from 13 Asia countries including Japan and China will meet in the Burma capital of Rangoon next week to discuss regional economic integration, officials said yesterday, reports Reuters.

A senior Burma finance ministry official said the meeting, organized by the 10- member association of South East Asian nation (ASEAN), would also be attended by the president of Asian Development Bank, Tadao Chino.

Japan, China and South Korea have been discussing with ASEAN the creation of a loose East Asian economic community since the collapse of several of the region's currencies and economies during the Asian financial crisis of 1997/98.

In recent years finance ministers from the region have agreed a series of pacts to support each other if their currencies come under pressure on foreign exchange markets.

ASEAN, with population of about 500 million and a combined gross domestic products of some $740 billion, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.#

Source: the Independent, 31 March, 02.