The global trend of de-dollarization and the establishment of an Asian Monetary Fund as an alternative to Western-led institutions, like the World Bank and IMF, is gaining momentum. Malaysia's Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim, has been advocating for these measures since he was finance minister in the late 90s. Now, amid concerns about the US economy, political situation, and its massive debt, Anwar is spearheading renewed efforts to address the regional impact. Rian Maelzer reports.

On his recent visits to China, and to Indonesia for the ASEAN summit, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim voiced support for reducing reliance on the US dollar and establishing an Asian Monetary Fund.

His suggestions were welcomed by China, some Southeast Asian countries and economists such as Yeah Kim Leng, an advisor to Malaysia's prime minister.

YEAH KIM LENG Economist, Sunway University "I think the Asian Monetary Fund is looking at creating some kind of regional interdependency and support for one another in the event of another major crisis, especially a financial crisis."

GEOFFREY WILLIAMS Economist, Malaysia University of Science & Technology "Anwar's of view that some of the interventions needed in ASEAN in particular but also around Asia as a whole are different to the prescriptions that come from the IMF and the World Bank and he's had that view for a long time. And I tend to agree with him on that there is a sort of Washington consensus on economic intervention and it's not always effective in this part of the world."

RIAN MAELZER Kuala Lumpur "Malaysia is moving to try to conduct more trade in local currencies rather than the US dollar, already doing so with India and currently creating the platform to conduct its massive trade with China in either ringgit or renminbi."

YEAH KIM LENG Economist, Sunway University "The challenge for the country now is to encourage the traders and exporters and importers to actually make use of those facilities then trade using either ringgit or the renminbi as the currency for payment and settlement."

Such de-dollarisation has long been mooted.

GEOFFREY WILLIAMS Economist, Malaysia University of Science & Technology "The difference between the discussions in the past and where we are now is that these discussions are actually delivering changes trade is now, actually, moving into bilateral currencies. I think also the geopolitical situation is different. Now and the growing dominance of China and the Belt and Road in particular, has changed the economic landscape now to how it was 10 or 20 years ago. So all of these things do make a difference."

And economists say that worries over the US economy and debt levels will only strengthen the calls of people like Anwar for de-dollarisation and the creation of an Asian Monetary Fund.

Rian Maelzer, CGTN, Kuala Lumpur.