In recent months, the financial debacle in Asia has been in the headlines daily. The gravity and proportions of the problem continue to unfold, and it is still too early to say how and when the crisis will be brought under control.
In the meantime, CIPE partners around the world are studying the lessons of the Asian economic crisis and are advocating some long overdue changes. A CIPE-sponsored conference held in Manila, Philippines pinpointed many of the very factors that led to the fallout in Asian economies. "Access to Economic Information," a report on the conference, was recently published by the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, a CIPE partner organization.
Participants at the conference sent a strong message: intraregional sharing of economic data is vital, government/business dealings must be subject to stricter disclosure requirements, and governments need to make their economic and information systems more transparent. Some of the major issues discussed at the conference include:
Uniformity - Disclosure laws need to be uniformly enforced so that all companies are operating on a "level playing field." Until this happens, companies that are forthcoming with economic data can expect to be at a disadvantage compared to those firms that withhold sensitive information.
"Economic Stability" - In the name of "economic stability," some governments have routinely withheld financial and political data that may be damaging. If information had traditionally been more accessible to economists and the economic media, the crisis in Asia might have been tempered or even avoided.
Corruption - In many nations, journalists are paid by business interests to write favorable stories. In these instances, members of the media, instead of raising a "red flag," merely gloss over potentially dangerous trends of which the general public should be aware.
Quality of Reporting - Many journalists have had little training in such specialized fields as economics and finance. Thus, unless they receive additional training, it is unlikely that they will see the "writing on the wall" before it is too late.
Cronyism - In many societies, reliable economic information is only available to business elites that are often collaborating with government officials. In such cases, the odds are against small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and new-to-market firms.
Dr. Bernardo Villegas, Dean of the Economics School at the University of Asia and the Pacific, a former CIPE grantee, may have summed it up best at a CIPE conference in Moscow in September. He noted, "Our mission was to strengthen the private sector as the engine of growth in sustainable development through reliable, objective, timely, and accurate information....What we had to strengthen was business, mass media, non-governmental organizations, and thousands of private educational institutions."
Many analysts believe that if more credible information and data had traditionally been accessible in Asia, important warning signs would have surfaced in the region years ago. In the past year, under pressure from their citizens and in light of the continuing financial crisis in Asia, governments in the region are more inclined toward full disclosure than at any time in memory. In the Philippines, to cite just one example, the National Statistical Coordination Board has invited outside participation for the first time in its Statistical Development Program for the years 1999-2004.
It is still not clear when the economic crisis in Asia will be brought under control. In the meantime, governments around the world, studying the lessons of Asia, are adopting more progressive economic policies that will promote greater transparency, involve more extensive data disclosure, and will actively encourage more meaningful public consultation and involvement in the policymaking process.