The Hindu Business Line : Asian nations to set up $80 b fund to counter global financial crisis

SEOUL: South Korea, China and Japan will discuss speeding up the creation of an $80 billion fund to help protect Asia from the global financial turmoil, officials in Seoul said on Monday.

The Strategy and Finance Ministry said deputy finance ministers from the three countries will meet next Monday on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund's annual meeting in Washington. Their finance ministers met in May and agreed to upgrade a currency swap scheme. They were supposed to meet again in May next year to discuss details. But the vice-ministers will meet next week to discuss bringing forward the ministerial talks, a ministry spokesman said.

Shin Je-Yoon, deputy minister for international affairs, said on Sunday that the countries had yet to agree details of the latest scheme, including how much each country would contribute and the decision-making process. Shin said the three-nation minist erial talks should resume “as early as possible'' to finalise details. “It is necessary for the three countries to actively cooperate as US financial turmoil may spread to the real economy,'' Shin said.

“The speed-up in discussing the $80 billion fund would have a preventive effect.'' President Lee Myung-Bak on Friday called for the finance ministers of the three countries to discuss closer coordination against global financial turmoil. - PTI

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