Challenges to economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region

More than a year has passed since the depreciation of the Thai baht in July 1997 triggered Asia's financial crisis. The spillover of turmoil into other parts of East Asia has been greater than initially expected. Recently, even Russia and some Latin American countries have seemed to be facing similar difficulties, a fact which has added uncertainty to the prospects for recovery in East Asia. Due to the fact that the crisis broke out in the Asia-Pacific prospects for recovery thus depend largely on the performance of several important economies in the region. This paper therefore seeks to uncover any possible cooperative schemes wh;ch may increase economic stability in the region and perhaps for the world as a whole.