TOP UN ASIA-PACIFIC OFFICIAL PUSHES FOR POOLING OF FISCAL RESOURCES TO BEAT RECESSION

Large-scale government stimulus packages are closed off to many nations across Asia and the Pacific, the top United Nations official for the region told a gathering of senior finance and central bank representatives, promoting a cooperative approach to jump-starting economies out of the global recession.

"We need to recognize that not all countries have the fiscal space to implement counter-cyclical measures at significant scales due to budget constraints," Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said yesterday.

Shrinking resources and other fiscal issues have left several countries in the region with little room to manoeuvre in their efforts to reignite suffering economies, Ms. Heyzer said in a message to the regional high-level workshop on the role of monetary, fiscal and external debt policies in responding to the financial crisis.

In her address, Ms. Heyzer pointed to the international community's response to the crisis and noted that the Asia-Pacific region, with over $4 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, can work together to spur recovery and restore economic growth.

Ms. Heyzer added that ESCAP can bring countries together to share experiences and coordinate their development activities for greater regional results, as exemplified by the high-level meeting in December 2008 in Bali, Indonesia, on the food and fuel hike, financial market meltdown and climate change crisis.

"The huge scale of government spending in the pipeline in many countries offers an unprecedented opportunity to design policies that will bring about more inclusive and sustainable development," she told participants at the four-day workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

The ESCAP workshop looking into various economic policies used by governments in the region to deal with the global financial crisis, hosted by the Bangladesh Bank, has brought together top officials from the finance ministries and central banks of Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam.

Also attending are experts from international organizations, including those from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP), World Bank and civil society organizations.
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Japan To Lend $5 Billion For Developing Nations' Green Projects.

Japan said Saturday it will launch a $5 billion lending facility to help Asian and other developing countries improve environmental infrastructure. The program was unveiled by Japanese Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano during a two-day meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bankers.

The aid covers such projects as solar and wind power generation, energy saving, water supply and sewerage systems, and urban transportation systems.

Japan plans to work together with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank as well as commercial banks in providing the aid.

Japan is also mulling a 'Green New Deal' plan at home that would address environmental problems while helping pull the country out of recession.

Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito is expected to announce a push for wider use of solar panels at schools and government buildings to be included in an economic stimulus package now being drafted.

G20 Backs Rescue Funds Boost As Crisis Summit Looms.

G20 finance ministers promised money on Saturday to rescue troubled emerging market economies. Ministers from the world's largest economies also pledged to regulate hedge funds and start closer checks on credit ratings agencies to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis.

'We are committed to deliver the scale of sustained effort necessary to restore growth,' the ministers said in a statement promising extra money for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and regional lenders such as the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Besides the IMF and ADB, the G20 finance ministers said they would review the capital needs of African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) at the annual meeting this year and called on the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) to 'promptly review its statutory capital constraints to give leeway to interventions'. This was urgent because Eastern European economies are in crisis.

It has been reported that the technical details of the deal to provide the [IMF] with additional resources were not finalized at the weekend but Japan has already signed a deal with the fund to provide a loan worth $100 billion. The US is seeking to increase the funding by extending the New Arrangements to Borrow facility, under which 26 of the fund's members agreed in 1998 to lend it up to $50 billion at times of crisis.

Spain's portion of a possible $250 billion increase in funding for the IMF would be in the order of $3 billion, Spanish Finance Minister Pedro Solbes said Saturday. Solbes said the cash would come from central bank reserves.

ADB Approves $4.4 Billion Lending Program For Pakistan

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Wednesday it approved a $4.4 billion lending program for Pakistan for 2009 to 2013 to facilitate structural changes, promote investment and improve institutional effectiveness.

Dow Jones adds that "the aid package will average $1.5 billion per year through 2011", said ADB Country Director for Pakistan Rune Stroem. "The main purpose of the aid is to sustain growth, reduce poverty and accelerate the transformation of economy", Stroem said. "Most of the assistance will go to improving sectors such as energy, water and infrastructure, and to economic reforms," she continued.

However, the Business Recorder writes that "Stroem expressed serious concern over political instability in Pakistan, and feared that the situation could upset the on-going lending programs of the international donors, including the International Monitory Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the ADB. He said that the security risks had become a matter of serious concern among the international donors."

Global Financial Market Losses $50 Trillion

The global financial crisis slashed the value of financial assets worldwide by $50 trillion last year, a study commissioned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said on Monday.

Financial asset losses in developing Asia, which suffered more than other emerging markets, totaled $9.6 trillion, or just over one year's worth of developing Asia's gross domestic product, the study said.

ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda, speaking to delegates at a bank conference where the study was released, said he feared the region's economies would suffer further before they start to bounce back.

'This is by far the most serious crisis to hit the world economy since the Great Depression. While this crisis originated in the US and some European countries, by now no region or country is insulated,' Kuroda said.

According to the ADB study, the figures provide clear proof of the close connections between markets and economies around the world, leaving few, if any, countries immune to financial or economic fallout. A recovery can only now be envisaged for late 2009 or early 2010.

[Kuroda] said the ADB has responded by stepping up access to loans, grants and credit guarantees by several billion dollars from the originally planned $12 billion for 2009, and is asking its shareholders to increase the bank's capital to as much as possible.