HUA HIN, (Thailand), March 1 (AFP): Southeast Asian leaders called for coordinated action and reform of international financial systems to tackle the global crisis, while warning against protectionism, a statement said today.
The joint statement came at the end of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the Thai beach resort of Hua Hin, which focused on the effect of the meltdown on the 10-member bloc's export-driven economies.
It said the leaders "urged that more coordinated action by both developed and developing countries be taken to restore financial stability and ensure the continued functioning of financial markets to provide support to growth."
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has spent much of its annual meeting seeking ways to soften the impact of the meltdown on their export-driven economies, with millions of jobs at risk.
They are due to issue a joint statement calling for a meeting of finance ministers in coming weeks and the rapid expansion of a multi-billion-dollar emergency currency fund for the region.
The leaders are also expected to sign a declaration on setting up an EU-style ASEAN community by 2015 that is aimed at protecting the diverse bloc of around 570 million people from future economic turmoil.
Premier Abhisit Vejjajiva of Thailand, whose economy is one of several in the region that is either in or nearing recession, told his counterparts Saturday that ASEAN was "at the frontier of an economic battle and recovery."
"As the financial crisis deepens the world will look towards our region for action and confidence, which is exactly what we in ASEAN are set out to do," Abhisit said in his opening speech.
ASEAN, with a combined gross domestic product of around 1.4 trillion dollars, had until recently been a relative bright spot in the world economy since its recovery from the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
But because the region is largely dependent on exports it is at the mercy of the chaos in the rest of the world's economies, with Singapore already in recession and Thailand's economy shrinking in the last quarter of 2008.
A senior ASEAN official confirmed that the leaders would issue a joint statement on the global financial crisis Sunday.
Foreign ministers from ASEAN and from China, Japan and South Korea agreed one week ago to extend a regional emergency fund set up under the so- called Chiang Mai initiative in 2000 to 120 billion dollars, but gave no date.
ASEAN signed a free trade deal with Australia and New Zealand during the three-day summit on Friday, the only concrete agreement to emerge from the gathering.
The group will on Sunday also sign an energy agreement to allow members to buy oil at a discount during times of crisis.
Yet as so often during its 42-year history, ASEAN's unity has been called into question amid splits over the issue of protectionism.
Thailand's Abhisit and Singapore Premier Lee Hsien Loong have both urged against protectionist tendencies in recent days, saying that Southeast Asia needed to show the world that it was still open for business.
Malaysian Premier Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, however, has said protectionism is normal during a crisis.
The economic crisis has been overshadowed at times during the summit by concerns over human rights, even as ASEAN leaders attempted to talk up a regional rights body that will be set up under the group's new charter.
