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LISA MULLINS: Fresh off the G20 meeting in London last week, some Asian government officials gathered for an economic conference in Cambodia today. They, like the G20, are also calling for a new economic world order to tackle the global financial crisis. But the world order these Asian nations are calling for is one that's less reliant on the United States and the West. The World's Mary Kay Magistad reports from Phnom Penh.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: China doesn't miss an opportunity of late to hammer home this message.

WANG XUEXIAN: I think the present crisis calls for the creative reform of the existing international monetary system.

MAGISTAD: That's Chinese Foreign Ministry senior official Wang Xuexian, speaking at a pan-Asian economic conference today in Phnom Penh. He repeated China's recent call for a new global currency. He argued that the global economy will be healthier if it stops being so dependent on the dollar, and on the financial regulatory system, or lack thereof, in the United States. He used a slogan best known for its use during the Cultural Revolution: “destroy the old to create the new.”

XUEXIAN: To establish a fair, just, inclusive, and orderly new global economic and financial order.

MAGISTAD: That's as opposed to the order now, which he describes as one where the US consumes, and Asian and other developing countries provide – raw materials and cheap goods. Better, he argued, for Asians to strengthen their ties with each other and increase demand at home and in the region. That message is resonating around here. Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said something similar at the conference today. He said, “The US-led financial order has been discredited, and developing countries are calling for a new international order.” He said, “Southeast Asian countries are ready to work more closely together to push for a system that works better for them.” China's been urging a more economically integrated region for a while now, with China presumably leading the pack. The Chinese Foreign Ministry's Wang called it “bundling together for warmth, because this global financial crisis is kind of like a winter.” If that's the case, he predicted that “the ice will melt first in East Asia, and that East Asia will emerge relatively stronger when it's all over.” Perhaps, but winters can last longer and hit harder than people expect. Indonesian Foreign Ministry senior adviser Eddy Hariati called for a little patience, given that the G20 countries just met, and promised to review the global regulatory environment. But even among the patient, there's a growing desire for change—change, at least, to ensure that the same kind of financial debacle doesn't happen again. China has seized the moment to make its case at many a venue like today's -- that it's time for the world to stop tilting West, and that China's got just the political and economic heft to help shift the balance. For The World, I'm Mary Kay Magistad, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

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