East Asian nations committed to form an $80 billion multilateral swap scheme by mid-2009 to shield the region from financial turmoil and agreed to aggressively pursue a regional surveillance agency, South Korea said on Friday. Thirteen Asian economies, comprising the so-called ASEAN+3, also agreed to develop Asian bond markets by boosting a regional bond settlement mechanism as the region has been seeking to reduce dependence on Western buyers of their debt. "Leaders at the meeting agreed to hold a gathering of finance ministers and central bank governors before December ASEAN+3 meeting to draw up detailed measures for financial cooperation within the region," South Korea's presidential office said in a statement quoted by Reuters. "They also shared the view of expanding the existing bilateral currency swaps to prepare against various financial crises, and the need of nursing Asian bonds markets." Leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), grouping 10 Southeast Asian nations, held a breakfast meeting with China, Japan and South Korea just ahead of the Oct 24-25 Asia-Europe summit (ASEM) in Beijing. A Japanese government official said separately that the leaders largely agreed that Asian economies were coping relatively well with the global financial crisis. "But they said since the global financial turmoil could continue, they will need to continue monitoring closely whether there will be further impact on Asia," the official added.
