E&OE....................................................................................................
In Kuala Lumpur the Prime Minister spoke to Graeme Dobell about
how the Asian crisis has given APEC a reality check.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it's the inevitable impact particularly on the less
developed members of the Asian economic downturn. The remarkable
thing is that APEC has come through that period as strong as it
has. And when you reflect on it, that there haven't been greater
checks on APEC's progress and that there still remains, even
in countries like Korea, for example, that have had to undertake
enormous adjustment, there's still tremendous commitment, a
quite sort of unconditional commitment to the goals of APEC.
DOBELL:
How hard a debate was it about the role that APEC should take in
terms of debating the new financial architectures that the world
is thinking about? Dr Mahathir, of course, has been talking about
the need to have some controls on financial flows and APEC really
was talking more about monitoring and transparency. How hard a debate
was that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, it wasn't really a hard debate because the overwhelming
view is that you should monitor and promote greater transparency.
There isn't a strong view that we should reintroduce controls.
There isn't an argument for going back to something akin to
Bretton Woods. I mean, those days are gone. Globalisation is a permanent
part of the scene now. And Australia has benefited enormously, speaking
from our point of view, from a flexible exchange rate. I mean, one
of the reasons that we've been able to diversify our trade
into North America and Europe is that we have got a flexible exchange
rate. If we hadn't have had a flexible exchange rate that trade
variation would have been a lot harder.
DOBELL:
In terms of what APEC should be doing to help rebuild, if the Asian
crisis is perhaps bottoming, not necessarily turning around, what
does APEC contribute?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well APEC contributes in a practical way. The Australian proposal
to help countries like Thailand and Vietnam write basic laws in
relation to things like bankruptcy and to improve the quality of
their financial and their economic governance, they're the
sort of things that we can do. And we in Australia, in particular,
can do better than most because we have a prudential banking system,
we have a very sound legal system, we're politically and economically
stable and we're trusted and we have a lot of expertise to
offer and all of those things are important. And they're the
sort of practical level things that we can do.
DOBELL:
And, finally, do you think that Vice President Gore wandered into
his own recalcitrant row with Malaysia because he was talking to
an American domestic audience rather than addressing a set of Asian
issues?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, you'd have to ask Vice President Gore that. I will speak
for Australia. Australia made its position known about Dr Anwar
and expressed concern about what was happening to Dr Anwar before
any country in the world, not just in the region. I think I was
saying things about that before anybody else, certainly anybody
else in the region. We haven't wavered from that. But the Australian
way is to talk to Dr Mahathir, to say to his face that we have concerns,
to listen to his response and to indicate by doing it that way that
we place considerable store on the relationship between the two
countries, not the relationship between me and Dr Mahathir
leave personalities out of it. There's an Australian national
interest in having a good relationship between Australia and Malaysia.
Now, 150,000 Malaysians were educated in Australia. We sell a lot
to the country. We've had a long historical association. Now,
I think I got the balance right. Nobody in the region, least of
all Dr Mahathir, is in any doubt as to what I think and the concerns
I have because I told him and I told him in the Australian way and
that is to his face.
[ends]