aso1_asean3meeting

Forging a Stronger Post-Pandemic ASEAN+3 Economy

The unprecedented challenge that COVID-19 poses to the ASEAN+3 countries further underscores the importance of regional financial cooperation. To that end, recent enhancements to the region's currency-swap arrangement will help to mitigate Asian economies' vulnerability to economic and financial shocks.

TOKYO/HANOI – The modern international financial system emerged from the devastation of World War II. Since then, it has continued to be shaped by historic slumps – most recently, the 2008 global financial crisis.

Today, the COVID-19 pandemic is putting the global financial system to another stringent test. And the unprecedented challenge facing the ASEAN+3 region – the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam), plus China, Japan, and Korea – further underscores the importance of regional financial cooperation.

Since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the ASEAN+3 economies have been diligently enhancing their regional financial-safety measures. The annual ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting has been the focal point for regional cooperation aimed at strengthening economic and financial resilience.

https://prosyn.org/gt6yr7w