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 othe r parts of East Asia has been greater than initially expected. Recently, ev en Russia and some Latin American countries have seemed to be facing simila r difficulties, a fact which has added uncertainty to the prospects for rec overy 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 econo mies in the region. This paper therefore seeks to uncover any possible coop erative schemes wh;ch may increase economic stability in the region and per haps for the world as a whole.