Bert Hofman, leading economist of the World Bank Office in Beijing, said on Friday that there is still a long way to go before Asia can launch its monetary integration.

Hofman said at the press conference for Boao Forum for Asia 2006 that for many years a lot of institutions such as the Asian Development Bank have been discussing monetary integration ever since the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s.

"However, there seems to be considerable questions concerning what should go first in pursuing monetary integration," he said.

According to Hofman, domestic capital liberalization of Asian countries has still not made enough progress, such as the opening of the capital market and a better integration of the capital market in general.

The second hindrance is the political aspect of an Asian monetary fund or Asian monetary union, the monetary integration organization for Asia that has been under discussion, he said.

Considering there are still many problems in trade and service integration, it is too early to say Asian monetary integration can happen now, he said.

Source: Xinhua