Indonesia calls for crisis fund for emerging nations

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WASHINGTON, Nov 15 (AFP): Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called yesterday for the establishment of a special fund to help developing nations reeling from global financial turmoil.
A "global expenditure support fund" will help emerging countries, especially those in Asia, be better positioned to act as an engine of growth for the world economy on the brink of recession, he said.
He would make the proposal at a weekend Group of Twenty (G20) financial crisis summit in Washington aimed at reforming and restoring stability to the financial system.
"As we brace ourselves for hard times ahead, I will stress the need to protect the poor in developing countries, by ensuring that pro-poor development budgets are not harmed," the Indonesian leader said.
"That is why I will propose the establishment of a Global Expenditure Support Fund to help developing nations maintain their economic growth and sustain development," he said at a forum of the US-Indonesia Society hours ahead of a working dinner of G20 leaders hosted by US President George W Bush at the White House.
Yudhoyono said the fund could be made available mainly for eligible "middle income countries" for a minimum of three years.
"If agreed, we can expect the finance ministers to work out the details in the next 100 days," he said.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest nation and the world's most populous Muslim nation, is among emerging and developed nations attending the G20 summit on the global financial crisis.
Yudhoyono said he would at the talks also press on the need for coordinated and concerted action at the national, regional and global levels to redress a liquidity squeeze, restore market confidence and protect consumers.
He hoped that the summit chaired by Bush would be a "starting point" of a process that would lead to reform of the international financial architecture so that it reflected "21st century realities."
Yudhoyono said that he had strongly urged Bush in a recent telephone conversation to convene the G20 summit rather than "the more exclusive G13 summit."