NAY PYI TAW : Asean business leaders yesterday dismissed the idea of a single currency among Asean members, saying it would do more harm than good.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Myanmar, Thai Deputy Prime Minister Kittiratt Na-Ranong shrugged off the idea of an Asean currency as "impossible".
"Asean countries have suffered together from the Asian economic crisis in 1997, and we've seen the benefit of exchange rates, which are an important substance of the capitalism system," he said.
Harish Manwani, the chief operating officer of Unilever Singapore, agreed with policy makers.
It is possible to manage the system within the current context where there is not just one currency in the world, he said.
Tarek Sultan al-Essa, chairman and managing director of the logistics firm Agility, said economic growth will not be driven by a single currency but by supply chain strength, an important aspect in which Asean countries must improve.
The comments were made during a WEF session on the vision of East Asia's networked future.
Mr Manwani said Asean countries must start looking at how to benchmark globally and not just regionally.
"In today's world, it is not good enough to be regionally the best. You have to make sure you benchmark yourself with the world," he said.
"I think the opportunity for Asean is how to manage the quality of Japanese products with Asean costs. There should be much more emphasis on quality and not just costs."
Mr Manwani said what matters most for a global company is simplification of taxes and financial markets that work.
"The idea is to have a transparent market that is as simple as possible," he said. Meanwhile, companies wishing to have a longer-term perspective must develop local talent.
The idea of a single Asean currency has been bandied about for at least a decade as part of plans to integrate the region's economies.
But leaders said the recent euro crisis could prove a valuable lesson, namely that countries should not rush the process of financial and monetary integration before the development of an adequate institutional framework.