Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme said yesterday the current financial turmoil the world is confronting will be an important test for the credibility of the 7th Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM7).
"We consider ASEM to be a very important platform for both dialogue and action," Leterme told China Daily.
"Finding ways to formulate even the beginning of a common answer to the current economic crisis will be beneficial for further cooperation within ASEM.
"We may have to take the results of the deliberations to a multilateral framework, which is to put the international financial system under review," Leterme said.
He said financial innovation has clearly outpaced supervisory regimes over the last few decades and a new international financial architecture should be called for.
At the EU summit in Brussels last week, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called for restructuring of the international financial system created after the World War II in order to restore investors' confidence in markets.
Leterme said overall, the European economy is still fundamentally sound.
"Our companies hold balance sheets which are in far healthier shape than during previous crises and our households have not piled up excessive debt," he said.
Belgium will host the next ASEM summit in 2010 and Leterme said he will do his utmost to build on the results achieved at the Beijing meeting.
He is particularly interested in disaster-relief cooperation among ASEM members.
"The initiative on enhanced ASEM cooperation on disaster relief is particularly needed because vast experience in this exists among member countries, including Belgium," he said.
"It would be great if we can pool such experience to the benefit of all ASEM members This is an example of how solidarity could go beyond political considerations."
Leterme visited China in August to attend the closing ceremony of the Beijing Olympics. He also held bilateral talks with Premier Wen Jiaobao.
"I am very excited by the rapidly expanding contacts between our people and institutions. They constitute the DNA of our relationship," he said. Europalia, a major cultural festival in Europe, will be held in Belgium next year featuring China. Chinese art, culture and history will be showcased at the festival.
Source: China Daily
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