Many Asian currencies have weakened in the past year, threatening to undermine regional stability, as fallout from the global credit crunch ripples through their export-dependent economies. The fund is aimed at ensuring central banks have enough to shield their currencies from speculative attacks such as those that depleted the reserves of Indonesia, Thailand and South Korea during the 1997-1998 financial crisis.

The Chiang Mai Initiative is “going to be a very strong message that we have the resources, we have the will and we have the ability to help ourselves,” Surin told reporters on Friday in Pattaya, Thailand.

Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, the four biggest Southeast Asian nations, will contribute $4.77 billion each, and the Philippines will provide $3.68 billion, Thai Finance Minister Korn Chatikavanij said Saturday. South Korea is mediating talks between Japan and China on the amounts they will contribute, Surin said Friday.

The reserve pool is a broadening of a current arrangement that allows only bilateral currency swaps.

Source: Bloomberg