have to look for the opportunities to use these regional forums as a way of refining, concentrating and amplifying our voice, so that the distilled wisdom of this interaction is heard more effectively in the multilateral forums. to provide a specific example : there can hardly be any doubt that the imf indonesian program would have been quite different if it had had an effective input from the region - the longterm desirability ( but low priority ) of doing something about the clove monopoly would have been kept in better perspective against the pressingly urgent short - term crisis of massive capital outflow. in macro policy, the overly tight budgets of the imf ’ s initial prescription might have been avoided. a strong regional representation could catalyse a better articulation of other aspects of our interests at the multilateral level. there is a danger that, at the multilateral level, the united states will promote the cause of those areas of principal interest to it ( principally latin america ) and europe will promote the interests of its eastern european neighbours ( including russia ), but that the interests of the countries of asia may be without a big country champion and advocate at the multilateral debate. we see this danger in the contingent credit line program being devised at the imf, where countries which receive a prior “ seal of approval ” will be able to draw on fund support more or less automatically in time of need. there is a real danger that countries which get this seal of approval are likely to be the countries of principal interest to the largest members of the imf who dominate the board. we may be able to redress this balance if our regional voice is well coordinated. a further factor in favour of regional arrangements is that, when it comes to collecting funds, a regional group can mobilise the strong forces of self - interest and immediate concern that are felt within a small, geographically contiguous group. the thai support package - where the regional contribution was almost three times the size of the imf ’ s contribution - illustrates that regional arrangements can be effective when multilateral agencies are slow across the ground or hindered by imperfect assessments of the situation. the form of the arrangements what form should these regional arrangements take? the point that should be made here is that a fair amount of overlap is inevitable, and no bad thing. certainly, representational resources are a constraint, but within this broad constraint, we should not be too fretted that a particular subject is discussed in more than one place

s a grenville : notes on east asian financial cooperation speech by mr s a grenville, deputy governor of the reserve bank of australia, at the anu international conference on financial markets and policies in east asia, held in canberra, on 4 september 2000. * * * in an increasingly globalised world, it is reasonable to ask why regional financial arrangements might still be important and worth striving for. aren ’ t we all going to be ruled by thomas friedman ’ s golden straitjacket, under the gimlet - eyed surveillance of the electronic herd? what place, in this seamlessly integrated world, for regional arrangements? the key point driving any regional arrangement is commonality of interests - even in a globalised world, we care more about what happens to our neighbours than we would about countries of equal size but geographically remote. just as there will be different levels of government ( local, national ) within a country, not all international issues will be best dealt with on a one - world universal basis. perhaps the most positive specific element of regional arrangements is their great potential for fruitful interaction which will raise understanding, cooperation, coordination and technical standards all round. one specific economic aspect of this is the so - called “ peer surveillance ” which has emerged in a number of regional arrangements. but the much more informal exchanges between technicians will probably be more important still - someone notices that one of their regional neighbours has a good way of doing something, so they copy it. in large part as a consequence of this continuing interaction, another important benefit from regional arrangements is their superior knowledge of what is happening in the region. i can recall that in july 1997, when east asian central bankers met in shanghai, it was very obvious to everyone at that meeting that the asian crisis was going to be very serious indeed. four months later, the us president was still talking about the crisis as “ a few glitches on the road ” - no reflection on his own competence in an enormously complex world, but a reflection of the poor advice going into the us decision - making process, which was reflected elsewhere, for instance in the lack of participation in the thai support program in august 1997. at the same time, it would have to be acknowledged that we were not able to use this better knowledge to improve the decision - making process in the multilateral agencies ( particularly the imf ). but this just says that we have to try harder in future, and turn potential into actual. we