This is a report of the proceedings of - Asian Strategy & Leadership ...

THE ASIA THINK TANK DIALOGUE REPORTRebuilding Confidence, Restoring Livelihoods Q&A Session 17Ambassador Jiang ChengzongSecretary General, China National Committee forPacific Economic Cooperation, China.Ambassador Jiang began the dialogue bycommenting that the United States and otherdeveloped economies and their respective mediaand economists were overstating the seriousness ofthe current crisis. He felt the reason for this was toattract assistance and aid from the countries of thedeveloping world to pull the West out of the trouble.He expressed the opinion that the Americans stillhad the power to fix their problems by themselves.The Great Depression of the late 1930s was quitedifferent in nature; moreover, today the US hadreserves as much as USD9 trillion although thesereserves were not in government hands, but ratherin non-public sectors. The amount of money used inthe various bail-out packages indicated that the USdid have the capacity but America was crying outto erode the confidence of others around the worldin dealing with the financial crisis. He argued that theUS and other developed economies had financialpower and clout – but the question was, how wouldthey use it?Asked if he thought the US should solve its ownproblems, Ambassador Jiang agreed. He also saidAsians had a shared responsibility to manage thecrisis. There was a need to sit together to discuss acollective approach where previously Asian countrieshad been observed to be selfish, taking opportunitiesto damage others in order to prosper. This was amatter of “economic morality”, in his view.Dr. Chap SotharithFormer Executive Director/ Senior Researcher,Cambodian Institute for Cooperation & Peacethat the export of garments, a pillar of theCambodian economy, along with tourism, agricultureand construction, were already affected. He said 80per cent of garments produced were exported tothe US, and approximately 400,000 workers in thegarment industry were now suffering the effectsof reduced demand. A stimulus package was notyet in place and it was necessary to ensure thatthis would not be prolonged. To the question ofwhat message needed to be conveyed at theforthcoming G20 meeting, he hoped the richcountries could be convinced against cutting downtheir imports of products and services. At the sametime, he ventured, the developing world would needto be pro-active and not wait for assistance.Mr. Michael SwitowCo-Founder, ONE (SINGAPORE) / Founder,SUPERSEED, Singapore.Mr. Switow agreed with Mr. Sotharith on theimportance of Official Government Assistanceor OGA by way of stimulus packages. He notedthat US President Obama had pledged to increasethe contributions made already, but many pledgesmade by the developed countries had not beenmet. Migrant labour also brought its share of issuesand this was being felt in Singapore, with workersfrom India and Bangladesh impacted by changeand their families in the rural areas getting furtherinto debt. He was of the view that the problem layin the fact that contracts were not being fulfilledand migrant workers were often not paid for theirtime and services and faced the risk of deportation.He called for reform in employment procedures,particularly in respect of migrant labour.Advancing the view that Cambodia was a smalleconomy but nevertheless had begun to feelthe effects of the global crisis, Dr. Sotharith noted