Goh urges roadshows to revive ASEAN's battered image

SINGAPORE Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong proposed joint Association of Southeast Asian Nations roadshows to "sell" the region to foreign investors as the economic crisis had dulled its lustre.

Mr Goh said the missions to the United States, Europe and Japan could be undertaken later this year after the Indonesian elections in June.

Mr Goh was addressing Brunei ministers and other top officials during a two-day working visit to the sultanate.

Asean secretary-general Rodolfo Severino echoed Mr Goh's comments on the grouping's waning image.

Mr Severino said, at the start of a four-day visit to Australia, the economic crisis which broke out in mid-1997 had severely dented the prestige of Asean as a leading multilateral forum.

But far from being the harbinger of its disintegration, the currency turmoil that slammed the brakes on the region's rapid economic growth had in fact helped bring the nine Asean members closer together, Mr Severino said.

Mr Goh said Asean "has lost much stature".

"First, the crisis has taken the shine out of Asean. Second, Asean as a group is being seen as helpless and worse, disunited in a crisis.

"In our summits in 1997 and 1998, we failed to convince the outside world that Asean was tackling the crisis with determination and decisiveness to regain its high growth," Mr Goh said.

Bilateral problems within Asean came out in the open during the crisis as several nations, including member-nations Malaysia and Indonesia, had to contend with internal political problems.

Singapore also faced political differences with the two neighbours.

In this difficult period, Mr Goh said, it was even more important that Asean countries co-operated closely.

Currencies and stock markets across the region tumbled as foreign capital stampeded for the gates after Thailand floated the baht in July 1997, ending a decade of rapid economic growth.

Mr Goh said apart from going on roadshows overseas, Asean should collectively encourage more business missions from the big developed nations to the region.

"The key to recovery is to regain investor confidence in the region. We must adopt practical measures and persuade the developed countries to be involved in helping Asean recover," he said.

Mr Goh said Asean, whose key economies wanted to create a free trade area by 2002, should send the right signals to investors that the grouping remained committed to economic liberalisation and welcomed foreign investment.

He said Singapore, like oil-rich Brunei, was small and harboured no ambition to lead Asean "but we can provide ideas and act as a catalyst to strengthen Asean."

Mr Goh said Asian economies appeared to have hit bottom after nearly two years of turmoil.

"But the crawl back will be slow and painful because the bottom is made of concrete, not a trampoline," he said.