Asian Countries Urged to Find Reviving Solutions on Their Own

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, October 07, 2002

Asian Countries Urged to Find Reviving Solutions on Their Own

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Sunday urged Asian countries to find their own solutions to revive their economies.

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Sunday urged Asian countries to find their own solutions to revive their economies.

If the Asian economy is to be revived, it should find its own particular solution rather than blindly obeying Western policies and institutions which enriched them at Asia's expense, Mahathir said when hosting a welcome dinner for some 800 participants of the World Economic Forum -- East Asia Economic Summit which opened Sunday afternoon at Kuala Lumpur.

"Stop preaching to others, not everything that comes out of the West is ideal and God-given truth," he said.

"How many times have their ideologies and formulas failed? How many times have they rejected their own ideologies and formulas inorder to replace them with another perfect and infallible formula.The replacements will fail again," the prime minister said.

"Stop the gambling on the share and currency markets (and) use the stock exchange as a place for raising capital, not making quick profits," he said.

Mahathir sharply criticized Western powers for mismanaging world trade through excessive speculation and manipulation and throwing the global economy into disarray, and urged Asian countries to team up to resuscitate real business by producing goods and services in order to put things right.

He said that Asia should be pragmatic and willing to ignore ideologies in favor of results since the Asian civilization had survived longer than other civilizations.

"We must be brave enough to go our own way. If they follow, fine. If not, that is fine too," the Malaysian prime minister said.

In the Asian financial crisis in 1997-98, Malaysia withstood economic hardships by adopting its own policies after rejecting prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund.

Questions?Comments? Click here

Asian Economy Faces Slower-Than-Expected Rebound

ADB Annual Meeting will Influence Region's Economy: Official

Modest Recovery for Asian Developing Economies in 2002: IMF

Jiang Urges Army to Prepare for Military, Anti-Terror Struggles ( 64 Messages)

Two Chinese Students Shot Dead When Robbing a Malaysian Bank ( 6 Messages)

China Becomes Biggest Market for English Learning ( 40 Messages)

China Continues to Absorb Foreign Investment ( 46 Messages)

US Urged to Stop Activities in Chinese EEZ ( 32 Messages)

'Taiwan Independence': Greatest Threat to Taiwan Straits Peace ( 70 Messages)