China, Japan, Korea bankers to meet annually

Central bankers from China, Japan and South Korea have agreed to hold regular meetings to discuss regional economic and financial issues. This system aims at enhancing the dialogue mechanism among the financial policymakers of those countries, according to a statement jointly announced by the three central banks.

The meeting will be held annually and Beijing will host the first such meeting in 2009.

Central bank governors would exchange opinions on the regional financial situation and issues of common concern at the meeting,

"The enhanced communication would help promote currency and financial stability in the region," said the statement.

Asian economies have come together to enhance cooperation to ward off the impacts of global financial crisis spreading to the real economies of Asian countries.

In May, East Asian finance ministers agreed to put up a $80-billion fund to upgrade the existing currency swap scheme to fight regional financial crises, thereby taking the region a step closer to creating a full-scale Asian monetary fund.

Japan, China and South Korea agreed to make available 80 per cent or $64 billion of the total fund, with the balance $16 billion promised by the ASEAN members.

On 2 December President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo of the Philippines and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jieche agreed that the "Chiang Mai Initiative 2" should be launched in December itself even if the ASEAN Summit scheduled to be held in Thailand in mid-December would be postponed.

The Chiang Mai initiaitve was originally announced by the ASEAN+3 (China, Japan and South Korea) finance ministers in May 2000, in the aftermath of the 1997-98 Asian Financial Crisis, to cooperate in four principal areas -- monitoring capital flows, regional surveillance, swap networks and training, to prevent the recurrence of such a crisis in the region.

Last month, the Philippines played host to the high-level meeting on the Chiang Mai Initiative 2 that is aimed at helping ASEAN countries experiencing liquidity problems.

In the meeting President Arroyo pushed for a quick-disbursing regional facility with minimal conditionalities, and the expansion of the currency-swap fund from $80 billion to $250 billion.

The expansion of the fund is said to be due to the gravity of the global financial crisis.