One of the lessons of the East Asian currency and financial crisis of the late 1990s was the existing international economic system's shortcomings in preventing and managing crisis. If East Asian countries are to enjoy sustained economic development and prosperity, the region's economies need both to deepen their interdependence to and work together proactively to reform the international economic system.
Under this program Japanese and East Asian experts are studying issues of structural and institutional reform and reconstruction in the context of the domestic, regional, and international economy and drawing up policy proposals on the basis of their findings. In this self-operated project, this year Japanese experts wrote papers focusing on the institutional reform essential for stabilization of the financial system. The topics included central banks' liquidity management policies, ways of ensuring the transparency of the Asian economic system, and Japan's post-bubble financial policies. In addition, two expanded coordination workshops were held, in Manila (October, 2001) and Kuala Lumpur (February, 2002). These workshops brought together those involved in the following two projects and in the project Enhancing Trade and Investment Cooperation in Asia: Issues, Policies, and Institutional Reform (p. 24) in the hope of achieving synergies through sharing information.