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Is an Asian OECD Possible?
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# : |
17166 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
12 / 1990 |
1,830 Words |
| Author
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Masao Fujioka
Masao Fujioka is president of Japan Credit Rating Agency, and
former president of the Asian Development. |
Asia is full of diversity, in its history, climate, culture, religion, and political systems. Regional cooperation has often been talked about in Asia, but no visible results have been attained so far. Of course, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) is an attempt to promote regional cooperation and is itself a product of such cooperation. However, almost all the projects the ADB has financed have been limited to individual countries, as it has been difficult to find a project spanning national boundaries. Although the ADB is doing a good job of bringing together Asian people at seminars and symposiums, what it can do for regional cooperation is quite limited.
There are several subregional cooperative groups in Asia. One well-known organization is ASEAN, the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which was formed more than 20 years ago, just after the ADB. This organization deals with international problems, its members usually taking a united position in negotiations in international forums. However, coordination among member countries in respect to trade, investment, and finance is still limited, and ASEAN is far from being an integrated market like the European Community.
SAARC, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, was established a few years ago. It comprises seven countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. SAARC will discuss nine selected areas, such as agriculture, transportation, and communication, but for the time being has no plans to widen its scope of cooperation to more general economic issues. There is also an association of south Pacific island states, but its functions are very
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