Spread of Web Sites Allows Access to Markets and Governments / CYBERSCAPE : Asia's Currency Crisis — On-Line
International Herald Tribune
October 13, 1997
Thomas Crampton

For years, predatory reporters have pounced on hapless Bank of Thailand officials as they emerged from the elevator at 3 P.M. on the last Thursday of the month after the bank's regular meeting. With elbows flying, the frenzied pack fights for the first copy of the bank's latest data.

Now, with the fall of the baht and other currencies around the region, the crowds have grown larger and the jabbing fiercer. Last month, however, the first word of the status of Thailand's foreign reserves was not shouted into a mobile phone by a journalist staking out the bank but was lifted off the central bank's home page on the World Wide Web 10 minutes before reporters got the news.

Unremarkable in other parts of the world, the dissemination of information by Internet is still rare in Southeast Asia. The Internet is relatively new in most countries, and the region has been described as a black hole for financial information.

But there is a rapidly growing number of sites that present relevant and timely data about the region's economic crisis. For live quotes, Financial Interactive Services Hub (www.infront.com.sg/) carries a selection of regional currency movements against the dollar as well as a variety of stock market indices. Notably absent, however, are quotes from Indonesia and the Philippines.

Almost all of Southeast Asia's local papers and their Web sites can easily be found through the Asian Mall (www.asianmall.com/topnews/). The Asian Mall also picks up selections of stories and creates an on-line regional front page. On their own sites, many of the papers have systems that allow users to search through back issues.

While live news is a rare commodity on the web, the Stock Talk page of the Singapore Business Times (www.asia1.com.sg/btstocks/) offers

regional market news as well as a well-attended forum where news updates are occasionally dropped into the discussion to dispel rumors.

Volleys of insults can be read on the home pages of adversaries George Soros (www.soros.org) and Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad of Malaysia (www2.jaring.my/msia/govt/pm/pm.html). The two men have been engaged in a dispute over who is to blame for Malaysia's recent economic woes.

Web sites operated by government news agencies include those of Malaysia's Bernama News Agency (www.asiapac.net/bernama/ in news.html), and Indonesia's official Antara News Agency (www.antara.co.id/welcome-eng.html).

Most Southeast Asian central banks also have Web sites where they provide comprehensive data. The Bank of Thailand (www.bot.or.th/), Bank Negara Malaysia (www.bnm.gov.my/), Monetary Authority of Singapore (www.mas.gov.sg/), Bank Indonesia (www.bi.go.id/) and particularly the Philippine central bank's regional office Infolink site (www.gsilink.com) also present a tremendous amount of historic data.

For a regional outlook, the Asian Development Bank's statistics files can be downloaded in spreadsheet form (www.asiandevbank.org/).

Most Southeast Asian stock markets offer free but slightly delayed stock quotes as well as information on listed companies. The Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange (www.klse.com.my/) includes a stock-performance calculator.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (www.pse.com.ph/), Singapore Stock Exchange (www.ses.com.sg/) and, for now, the Stock Exchange of Thailand (www.set.or.th/) all update prices frequently and provide recent company disclosures.

The Stock Exchange of Thailand, however, has announced that it will discontinue live quotes this month. The Jakarta Stock Exchange (www.jsx.co.id/), on the other hand, will begin to report live from the trading floor by next month.

Internet address: CyberScape@iht.com

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