Inside Asia's whirlwind

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Inside Asia's whirlwind

Who's to blame for Asia's crisis? And what happens now? Nine of the region's movers and shakers give their views on the pace of change across the region, the part played by the Japanese banks, the future of Hong Kong's currency peg and the role of China.

* Norman Chan, deputy chief executive of the HKMA
* Michael Dee, managing director, Morgan Stanley
* Stuart Gulliver, treasurer of HongkongBank
* Donald Hanna, regional economist, Goldman Sachs
* Edmond Ip, executive director and general manager of finance, Cheung Kong
* Clement Kwok, finance director, MTR
* Brian Lippey, chief executive, Tokai Asia
* Alan Smith, vice-chairman, Credit Suisse First Boston Asia
* Richard Tsiang, director, Allard Capital
* HY Wong, treasurer of Airport Authority of Hong Kong
* Interviewer: Padraic Fallon, chairman and editor-in-chief, Euromoney Publications









What's different about Asia's crisis?

Brian Lippey: Asia is the last vestige of command economy, and what we're seeing is the breakdown of the command economy. In Asia's case banks were the agents for governments that wanted to guide capital. The banks were encouraged - either directly or indirectly - to lend to strategic industries. One of the reasons Korea was so deeply affected was because lending decisions were taken because of government policy and not profitability.

Do you blame crony capitalism?

Michael Dee: I define crony capitalism as the allocation of capital to non-efficient mechanisms. But one of the great strengths of Asia is the extremely high domestic savings rate. The problem is that the capital doesn't get allocated efficiently to the right projects.

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