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The government wants to take the initiative in forming an ¡°Asian Fund¡± with US$80 billion to tackle the global economic crisis. Members of ASEAN plus China, Japan and Korea are to participate. The plan to form a fund of this kind was originally agreed in May 2006 to prevent another Asia-wide crisis like the one in 1997, but negotiations stalled over the contribution to be made by each country.
Shin Je-Yoon, deputy minister for international affairs at the Strategy and Finance Ministry, Sunday told reporters vice ministers from China, Japan and Korea will meet on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund annual meeting in Washington D.C. next Monday and discuss the Asian Fund. ¡°We also plan to discuss ways to build a cooperative system for the financial policies of the three countries because Chinese financial policies heavily influence the Northeast Asian economy, especially Korea¡¯s export sector,¡± he added. The meeting follows a suggestion President Lee Myung-bak made on Friday.
¡°The countries have not agreed on how to share the financing and how to structure the decision-making process. But the fact that the negotiation is speeding up helps prevent further chaos in the exchange currency market,¡± Shin added.
However, since the Chinese and the Japanese governments are fighting over the leadership of the Asian Fund, it is uncertain whether the negotiations will go smoothly as Korea hopes. If Korea¡¯s mediation fails, it could harm Korea¡¯s credit rating and foreign exchange rate.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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