BANGKOK, Sept 28: Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Saturday he would propose an idea of “Asia bonds” in the fifth Asia-Europe summit (ASEM) in Vietnam in 2004 to boost cooperation in financial area.

Thaksin said on his weekly radio talk programme that the scheme, aimed to help strengthen economies of Asian countries, will be high on the agenda in the meeting of 17 members of the the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in June 2003.

“We will discuss the issue in the ACD meeting next year. I would like to see some connection between Euro bonds and Asia bonds. The plan should be materialized next year,” Thaksin said.

The “Asia bonds” idea, previously proposed by Thai Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak during his visit in Japan in August, is to use Asian nations’ foreign reserves to invest in a shared bond.

Somkid has said the scheme is to help governments if they ever found their currencies under speculative attack such as during the run up to the Asian financial crisis in 1997-1998.

Thaksin said Asian countries, which had sufficient reserves, should allocate about one per cent of their reserves to buy the bond.

The Asian financial crisis was sparked by a massive devaluation of the baht in July 1997 after an unsuccessful defence of the currency by the central bank.

Analysts said it should take time for the “Asia bond” idea to be materialised due to the difference of Asian nations.

ACD, one of Asia’s trade and economic talking-shops, groups 10 member of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), plus Japan, China, South Korea, Pakistan and India.

ASEM groups the 15 European Union members plus 10 Asian nations — China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan.—Reuters