The finance ministers from China, Japan and South Korea said in
India?Thursday that they agreed to make continuous efforts to
seek the possibility to further enhance regional financial
cooperation.
They said the three countries have made considerable progress in
cooperation and the regional financial cooperation within the
ASEAN+3 is going toward a favorable direction.
"Through meaningful and fruitful discussions, we have made
considerable progress in the cooperation among the three
countries," the ministers said in a joint message after the 6th
Trilateral ( China, Japan, South Korea) Finance Ministers' Meeting,
on the sidelines of the 39th Annual Meeting of the Board of
Governors of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The message said that the prospects of the three countries'
economic growth for 2006 are positive because of the strong demand
in the region and continued robust growth of the world economy.
They said they welcomed the completion of the CMI (Chiang Mai
Initiative) review, which started in the 2004 ASEAN+3 Finance
Ministers' Meeting in Jeju, South Korea.
Officials at the meeting said that during the finance ministers'
meeting of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) and China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3) on
Thursday afternoon, they are expected to strike out a plan to
further expand the region's financial cooperation on the basis of
the CMI, which was borne in May 2000.
"We also agreed to make continuous efforts to seek the
possibility to further enhance the regional financial cooperation
beyond the CMI, including exploring the ways of achieving
multilateralization of the CMI," the ministers said.
The ministers also reaffirmed their strong commitment to
promoting other regional cooperation projects such as the Asian
Bond Markets Initiative.
Meanwhile, the three ministers said they have noted the
importance of sharing a long-term vision for financial integration
in the region. They agreed to further study the related issues,
including the usefulness of regional currency units, through the
ASEAN+3 finance ministers' process.
On the world economic growth, the ministers said there was a
need to strengthen the three countries' role in achieving global
and regional sustainable growth and financial market stability.
(Xinhua News Agency May 4, 2006)