Various regional cooperative mechanisms, if implemented effectively, could help lift Asia first out of the global crisis, said Zhao Xiaoyu, Vice-President of Asian Development Bank (ADB) in an interview with Xinhua on Sunday.

"Asian countries themselves have a big enough market to generate the demand now developed countries fail to," said Zhao, "but this requires countries to make concerted efforts under regional cooperative platform."

Within ADB are three main existing mechanisms, namely Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Program, Central Asian Regional Economic Cooperation Unit (CAREC) and South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) initiative.

"My analysis is that once the pan-Asian cooperation is put on track and demand is boosted, there will be very positive factors to tackle the crisis and this is where the ADB is best at," Li said.

But the Vice-President had his concerns. "Many governments have announced their stimulus packages, but do they have the capacity to deliver them? And are there so many readily available projects to spend on?" Zhao asked.

"It's all about implementation and supervision after the plans are announced," he said.

Besides, Zhao believed trade financing to be another critical key for the region to recover from the crisis, as the ongoing crisis has prompted banks to reduce lending to emerging markets and cut credit lines to both importers and exporters.

"It's not that they don't have the money, it's that they do not have the confidence to lend it," he said.

Knowing where the rub is, the ADB has been endeavoring to ensure trade financing through its Trade Finance Facilitation Program (TFFP), a strong move in curing trade stagnancy of the region, particularly in times of crisis.

The TFFP, which began operations in 2004, had been providing finance and guarantees through international and local banks to boost trade in developing nations.

The ADB has expanded the TFFP from US$150 million to one billion. It has also increased the maximum maturity of loans permitted under the TFFP to three years from two years. After the fund increase, the program is predicted to generate up to US$15 billion in trade financing by 2013.

"The last point," Zhao said. "is that there should be no protectionism of any form. Trade barriers are really dangerous constrains to Asia's recovery."

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2009)