DALTON TANONAKA, CNN ANCHOR, BIZASIA: South Korea is taking pride in the fact that it repaid a financial crisis loan from the International Monetary Fund well ahead of schedule last week. But the IMF's deputy director for Asia Pacific says work still remains.</s>ANOOP SINGH, DEPUTY DIR. ASIA PACIFIC, IMF: The challenge in Korea, the challenge in the other crisis countries, the former crisis countries, is in order to sustain the high growth rates that Korea has recently enjoyed and aspires to maintain over the medium term. The same applies to other countries in east Asia. The challenge is to continue with corporate debt restructuring; that is a challenge, and I think governments everywhere are aware that this is an essential task.</s>TANONAKA: Sir, last question: What other countries are possibly in need of help now? Where are the problem areas? Where is the IMF currently looking at?</s>SINGH: Well, as you know, I'm with the Asia department, so I think we have a recovery underway in many part of Asia. I think with this Indonesia (ph) program coming back on track, we will -- we see that Indonesia too will soon enjoy the kind of high growth rates that it certainly has the potential for.</s>TANONAKA: Singh was in Indonesia to sign an agreement resuming IMF loans to Jakarta. END TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
IMF Facing Economic Challenges in Asia