East Asia agrees on concept of single Asian currency

[bhchao]

The finance ministers of South Korea, China, and Japan have agreed on the concept of a single Asian currency called the Asian Currency Unit (ACU).

Discussions on forming the ACU will take place later this year. The three countries will establish a joint taskforce of government officials and experts from public and private research institutes, and come up with a framework for the ACU.

http://chn.chosun.com/big5/site/data/html_dir/2006/05/04/20060504000020.html

據韓聯社4日報導，韓國、中國和日本3個國家于4日達成一致意見，三國政府決定開始共同研究引進像歐元一樣在亞洲區域內共同使用的單一貨幣方案。

據報導，副總理兼財政經濟部長官韓德洙表示，當天在印度海德拉巴舉行的第39屆亞洲開發銀行（ADB）年會上，和中國財政部長金人慶、日本財務相穀垣禎一舉行會晤，3國財長達成一致意見，為在亞洲區域內實現金融一體化的長期展望，從政府層次上探討引進共同貨幣的方案。

為引進亞洲單一貨幣，首先韓、中、日3國決定在今年內組成有政府官員和國家、民間研究機關的專家參與的研究組，著手制定發展藍圖。

Implementing the ACU will also need to account for political considerations, for example whether to incorporate Taiwan or Hong Kong.

[Quest]

What are the benefits?

[roddy]

There's a list of them for the euro here, although many people will disagree.

[bhchao]

A benefit of a single Asian currency would be easier facilitation of cross-border transactions between the East Asian economies, especially when they are becoming interdependent on each other.

China is already Korea and Japan's largest trading partner.

Another advantage would be to minimize the fallout from a falling dollar. If the dollar falls drastically, the currencies of these three Asian economies would have to respond accordingly, especially China since it has the yuan pegged to the dollar at a fixed rate and also holds large amounts of US debt.

If the dollar falls drastically, the value of these treasury debt sitting in China's banks will also fall, causing a ripple effect.

A single Asian currency would allow all three nations to better adapt to a falling dollar.

There are other advantages that others may think of.

[liuzhou]

What are the benefits?

Pictures of Herr Chairman, of course!

[geraldc]

I wonder if they'll have problems coming up with a name for it.

Yuan-Yen-Won

Seeing as the Yuan and the Yen are both written as ¥, how's the Won written?

[atitarev]

I wonder if they'll have problems coming up with a name for it.

Yuan-Yen-Won

Seeing as the Yuan and the Yen are both written as ¥, how's the Won written?

The symbol for wǒn (weon) both in South and North Korea is ￦ (crossed W)

All three words/characters are a different version of the same character/word! I think they can just continue calling them as their native currency.

円 (えん - en) - (¥) Japanese has a simplified version of 圓

圆 (yuán) - (¥) China has simplified it differently

圓 (원 - wǒn) - (￦) it's traditional and the current Korean character, mostly written in Hangeul/Choseongeul (Sth/Nth).

How about writing on the notes like this:

10 円 / 10 圆/ 10 圓

We also have the character 元 (sh)