Finance ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as well as China, Japan and South Korea indicated Wednesday that they have made major progress in developing a currency swap plan.
Three concrete bilateral deals and five arrangements under negotiation were reported to a meeting the ministers held Wednesday in Hawaii of the 10 ASEAN member nations and their three dialogue partners -- China, Japan and South Korea -- known as ASEAN-plus-three.
Japan confirmed it had made bilateral agreements with Thailand, South Korea and Malaysia.
The currency swap plan, known as the Chiang Mai Initiative, is aimed at linking the international reserves of the ASEAN countries -- Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam -- with those of the three dialogue partners through a set of bilateral pacts to prevent further currency crises.