Foreign Ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will see regional financial stability as a crucial measure to deal with the current global economic crisis, ASEAN sources said on Saturday.

In their scheduled meeting on Monday, the ministers will discuss at great length measures to tackle the crisis that has slowed the economy of export-dependent Southeast Asia.

A key mechanism for the region to ensure financial stability is the so-called Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), which was set up to address short-term liquidity difficulties in the region.

Finance ministers of the ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN+3) reached in May the agreement on all main components of regional reserve pool, and would implement it before the end of this year.

The total size of the CMIM is US$120 billion with the contribution portion between ASEAN and the Plus Three countries at 20 percent versus 80 percent.

China and Japan will each contribute US$38.4 billion to the pool, while South Korea will contribute US$19.2 billion.

The ASEAN Secretariat will work closely with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to form a advisory panel of experts to monitor and analyze regional economies and support CMIM decision-making.

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2009)