China To Pursue Establishment Of Fund

By Tham Choy Lin 

BEIJING, March 7 (Bernama) - Stressing his confidence of a brighter future for Asia, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Saturday said Beijing would pursue the establishment of an agreed US$120 billion fund to help Asian countries in the international financial crisis. 

He also called on fellow countries to make unprecedented efforts to battle the crisis at a media briefing on the sidelines of China's annual legislative National People's Congress. 

"In the face of the international financial crisis, I believe it is important for China and other Asian countries to be more creative and take more pioneering steps so that our Asian economies will be one of the first to walk out of the shadow cast by the crisis," he said. 

"We will pursue the multilaterialism of the Chiangmai Initiative and put in place the foreign reserves pool," added Yang. 

Asean, in short for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China and South Korea agreed two weeks ago, to set up the long-discussed regional fund, dubbed the Chiangmai Initiative, as the global recession deepens and further hits Asia's exporting economies and investments. 

Finance ministers of the countries agreed to expand the pool from the initially proposed US$80 billion to US$120 billion. 

About 80 per cent of the pool will come from China, Japan and South Korea while the balance would be shared by Asean countries. 

Yang said China, Japan and South Korea should step up exchanges and cooperation to help Asia in the recession, pointing out that trade among them was bigger than that of Britain, Germany and France. 

China would also continue to enhance cooperation with South Asia and Asean, including the Mekong region states. 

"We are committed to pursuing partnerships of mutual benefit with surrounding countries. Many of China's important trading partners are located in Asia," said Yang, adding that China's share of the Asian economy was bigger than its 20 per cent slice of global growth. 

Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. 

-- BERNAMA