MCOT English NewsBANGKOK, Feb 21 (TNA) -- Finance ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are set to expand their countries' financial cooperation to multilateral from the current bilateral status and will increase their fund contributions to US$120 billion from $80 billion during their one-day meeting with three East Asian partner countries, Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said.
The ministers' meeting will be held Sunday in Thailand's Andaman Sea resort of Phuket, with ASEAN's secretary-general and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) president also scheduled to participate.
At the meeting, the 10 ASEAN ministers and the three East Asian partner nations -- Japan, China and South Korea (ASEAN+3) -- will confer on upgrading their financial cooperation to multilateral from bilateral to allow a regional-pact response to ASEAN member country facing a financial problem, Mr. Korn said.
He said the agreement, if concluded, will help boost the short-term liquidity of whatever country encounters problems as the global economic recession worsened.
The ASEAN+3 finance ministers will also discuss the progress of the Chiang Mai Initiative, a programme of financial cooperation launched in Chiang Mai in 2000, Mr. Korn said.
Under the terms of the Chiang Mai Initiative, ASEAN members will contribute funds from their reserves to $84 billion, but Sunday's meeting is expected to upwardly revise the amount to $120 billion.
The concluding joint statement of the Phuket meeting will be discussed at the ASEAN summit at Hua Hin February 27 to March 1.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. (TNA)
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