YANGON, April 6: Southeast Asian finance ministers wrapped up a meeting in Yangon on Saturday in an upbeat mood, saying their region was back in recovery mode after successive upheavals and the challenge was now to maintain that.

Ministers urged closer cooperation among the 10 members of their Association of South East Asian Nations to boost recovery, but conceded that different levels of development and market conditions in the diverse bloc meant no one economic formula would fit all.

Indonesian Finance Minister Boediono told reporters delegates had agreed the region was now recovering.

The general message is that every one of us is rather upbeat. Although a couple of months ago it was a rather different psychology, now I think we are seeing that things are looking up.

Asked how recovery could be maintained, he replied: By doing our homework, each of us, and working to cooperate together as much as possible.

Thai Finance Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told reporters the final statement of the meeting would refer to the positive recovery of the ASEAN region.

Especially in Thailand now the momentum is very strong.

He said Thailand’s target of 3.5 per cent economic growth this year was realistic if its main export market, the United States, saw a healthy recovery.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) delivered some good news to the meeting, saying the region was expected to see a “moderate” rebound this year helped by very encouraging signs of recovery in the United States and partial recovery in Europe.

But it warned that risks remained, given serious imbalances in the United States and high world oil prices, and said the extent of the upturn would vary from country to country, depending and how much progress they had made on reform.

The mood put across by the ministers was in marked contrast to the gloom brought about by last year’s global downturn, which compounded problems caused by Asia’s 1997 financial meltdown.

Last year’s downturn led to a big export slump in Asia, particularly hitting hi-tech producers such as Singapore and Japan, and ministers said the focus was now on boosting domestic demand through fiscal or monetary stimulus.

But they said varying conditions in ASEAN member countries, which range from rich powerhouses like Singapore to stumbling military-ruled Myanmar, meant individual approaches must differ.

Singapore’s representative said that as well as boosting domestic demand, ASEAN — Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei — needed to find ways to woo back foreign investors who have been increasingly attracted to China and Northeast Asia.

We cannot just grow based on domestic demand alone, Lim Hng Kiang told Reuters.

Before leaving on Saturday, the ministers were to sign protocols on tariffs and on further liberalising of financial services.

Meeting Japanese, Korean and Chinese dialogue partners on Thursday, the ASEAN countries discussed expanding a regional currency swaps network Tokyo has championed, that now involves agreements worth $15 billion to provide rapid help if a currency comes under speculative attack as in 1997.

Some see this as a precursor to an Asian Monetary Fund — a prospect that makes some Western countries, particularly the United States, uneasy.

But Japan made clear an Asian fund was still on the back burner and would be difficult to achieve in the next one or two years, given the different stages of development in the region.—Reuters