Asian currency unit minus India

Speaking to The Indian Express on behalf of the ASEAN+3 group, the deputy prime minister of South Korea and minister of finance and economy Han Duck-Soo said in very clear terms that the studies which are going on on the ACU would be limited to ASEAN+3 countries alone and would not include India.

‘‘It is we (ASEAN+3) who agreed on this concept, he said.’’ The ASEAN+3 group of countries include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, South Korea and China.

The finance ministers of these countries had come to Hyderabad to attend the Asian Development Bank (ADB) AGM and held a separate formal meeting among themselves on issues such as the Asian Bond Markets Initiative as well on the Chiang Mai Initiative.

In fact prior to this meeting of ASEAN+3 countries today, official sources in the ministry of finance told The Indian Express that though India’s participation in the common Asian Currency Unit was not on the agenda of the ADB board of governor’s meet to be held of May 5, but they had informally started discussing with some members on India’s interest to be part of the initial group of countries that formulates the common ACU.

While they agreed that no formal request had been made either to the ADB or the ASEAN+3 countries, they admitted they had even asked the RBI to give its feedback on when India should join the ACU. ‘‘It is very critical to know whether to join now or at a later stage and both have their advantages and disadvantages.’’

For instance, the biggest worry for India is not to become the Turkey of South Asia. Turkey is finding it very difficult to become part of the common European Union currency, euro.

While collectively the ASEAN+3 group of countries have decided to keep India initially out of the common ACU, individual member countries have different opinions on India’s involvement.

For instance, Japan is fearful of a strong China and therefore may be happy with India’s involvement. However, it has not made its view open about it.

Similarly, there are countries such as Singapore that want India to be part of ASEAN+3 but countries like Malaysia are not too keen on this format, sources said.

Interestingly, earlier, ADB president Haruhiko Kuroda indicated that while India may not enter the ASEAN +3 group for the ACU but could definitely be part of a larger ASEAN +3+3 sort of grouping which also includes New Zealand and Australia.

However, today, South Korea’s Han Duck-Soo was totally non-committal to even this sort of grouping becoming part of the ACU.