Wake up, Asean!!! Part 2

Pix of the deadly crackdown of the pro-democracy demonstration in September.
Pix source: http://myamarnews.blogspot.com/

Asean, which kowtowed to the murderers of Myanmar this week, still has many grand plans although it is beset by many unsolved regional disputes and problems.

One of the grand plans is the idea of a common stock exchange for easier cross-border trading in big-cap stocks, AFP cited an official at the Thai bourse as saying today.

The report said Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam would jointly set up an exchange for regional trading in late 2008. Under the plan, large-cap shares in each participating country could be exchanged on the new trading board.

Asean, please wake up! Can an Asean-wide stock exchange realistically take off next year when the two historically linked stock exchanges of Malaysia and Singapore can't even set up a joint trading platform after talking for more than three years?

And the two bourses -- Bursa Malaysia and Singapore Exchange -- are the only two publicly-listed stock exchanges within Asean. Their status would have made it easier for them to undertake commercial decisions such as setting up a joint trading platform. But the proposed cross-trading mechanism remains a pipe dream.

Asean members must resolve the long list of outstanding bilateral issues first, before the bloc could truly undertake real regional joint efforts or have greater moral authority to preach to Myanmar's dumb generals.