KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Policies promoting free trade of goods and services must be put in place to move global economy forward, a Japanese official said here on Tuesday.
Yoichi Nemoto, Deputy Director-General of the International Bureau of Japanese Finance Ministry, made this remark at the Asian-Europe Meeting held here.
He stressed that free trade was a pre-requisite to move the economy forward, adding that some policies contributing to economic slowdown had been in existence.
He also said free trade could bring about strong intra-regional trade, creating the opportunity for Asia to come up with its own common currency in settling trade transactions.
Yoichi said the using own common currency to trade would not be possible for Asia within a short period of time in view of the absence of a strong intra-regional trade.
Touching on the current financial crisis, Yoichi said prudent management of the macroeconomy was crucial, including the reduction of foreign debts.
He also said that the Japanese government had been providing safety net for its people to safeguard their interests.
Moving forward, Yoichi said Asian countries would rely on domestic growth driven by domestic consumption to gain the momentum for growth.
On the other hand, Yilmaz Akyuz, Special Economic Advisor of South Center, an intergovernmental policy think tank of developing countries, said Asia could establish a genuine regional development bank.
However, Akyuz said the main obstacle to setting up such bank was that Asia lacked the culture of regionalism.
ASEM has been an inter-governmental platform of dialogue and cooperation between Asia and Europe since 1996. It currently has 45 members, which together represent half of the world's gross domestic product.
The two-day seminar beginning on Monday is co-organized by the Asian Development Bank, the Central Bank of Malaysia and the European Commission, with participation of more than 100 officials and economists from both Asia and Europe.
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