ASEAN nations agree on individual contributions to regional reserve pool

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-04-10 13:38

PATTAYA, Thailand -- The ten member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Thursday agreed on individual contributions to the foreign reserve pool, Thailand's Finance Minister Korn Chativanij said in a joint press conference in beach resort Pattaya in Thailand's central province of Chonburi.

The agreement was made during the 13th ASEAN Finance Ministers' Meeting ahead of the ASEAN Plus Three summit, to be held April 10 to 12 in Pattaya.

"We are committed to reach an early conclusion on major components of Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) by our meeting with Plus Three Counterparts in Bali in May this year, " said Korn.

The Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI), which was created following the 1997's economic crisis, was designed as a bilateral currency swap program, but later the participating countries agreed to transform the CMI into a regional foreign reserve pool, with the Plus Three Countries (China, Japan and South Korea) altogether contributing 80 percent while the ten ASEAN countries' sharing the rest 20 percent.

It has also been agreed earlier that the fund's size is to be enlarged from the original planned 80 billion U.S. dollars to 120 billion U.S. dollars.

As the Plus Three Countries - China, Japan and Korea have yet to agree on their contributions to the foreign reserve pool, the ten ASEAN countries have finalized their individual contributions for the 20 percent contribution, valued at roughly 24 billion U.S. dollars.

The sum will be divided between Brunei with 0.03 U.S. billion dollars, Cambodia with 0.12 billion U.S. dollars, Indonesia 4.76 billion U.S. dollars, Laos 0.03 billion U.S. dollars, Malaysia 4. 76 billion U.S. dollars, Myanmar 0.06 billion U.S. dollars, the Philippines 3.68 billion U.S. dollars, Singapore 4.76 billion U.S. dollars, Vietnam with 1.00 billion U.S. dollars, and Thailand with 4.76 billion U.S. dollars.

The foreign reserve pool is designed to support the ASEAN members to deal with the potential financial crisis.