ASIAN COUNTRIES SHOULD MOVE TO DOMESTIC DEMAND FOR GROWTH, SAYS US PRESIDENT AIDE

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 (Bernama) -- Asian countries need to move to domestic
demand to ensure their growth in light with the strains in the global economic
climate, says Dr Laura Tyson, the Economic Adviser to United States President
Barack Obama.

Dr Tyson, who is also Economic Adviser to former President Bill Clinton,
said the countries need to create more opportunities for the development of
small and medium businesses.

The Professor of Haas Business School said Asian countries have to find a
"little more of their growth from domestic demand."

"Creating more new opportunities for the development of small and medium
businesses and spending more money for domestic demand programmes like
healthcare will generate a lot of jobs and a lot of domestic demand internally
as they are not very export-driven," she told reporters on the sidelines of the
World Capital Markets Symposium organised by the Securities Commission.

Dr Tyson also said the International Monetary Fund was currently developing
a new programme to help countries to quickly deal with economic crisis.

Responding to a question on whether Asia is the engine of growth in the
global economy, Dr Tyson said a set of policies was needed throughout Asia to
give a significant impact to economic growth.

"I was very impressed with what China has done on their stimulus side and it
is becoming a more significant source of growth in the region. I think there
are promising signs this is happening.

"I would emphasise the need for policies like education, healthcare and
social security which would help the household sector spend more because
they have more safety-led provisions which allow them to save a little less.

"At the end of the day, Asia will continue to be a net export society and
the US will continue to be a net import society and the imbalances could
be much smaller," she added.
-- BERNAMA