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MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines on Thursday will commit $9 billion to the planned doubling of an Asian fund meant to insulate the region from any financial crisis.
On the sidelines of the 45th Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Board of Governors, Finance Secretary Purisima told reporters that the Philippines plans to double its contribution to the Chiang Mai Initiative to $9 billion.
Asean finance ministers and central bank governors have set a meeting in Manila parallel to the ADB Board of Governors event.
Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said there is "broad support among Asean for the measures suggested to enhance the Chiang Mai Initiative."
Established in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, the scheme allows signatories to draw up to 2.5 times their contribution to the fund pool in cases of financial crisis.
Besides the member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, other signatories to the Chiang Mai Initiative are Japan, South Korea and China.
Tetangco said signatories to the Chiang Mai Initiative are angling to double the fund pool from $120 billion to $240 billion, thus providing the region a bigger cushion in case of a financial crisis.
"It will make the facility more effective as a regional liquidity support net in case there is a need,” Tetangco said.
"We will be contributing the same amount that the other members of the Asean 5 will be contributing,” the BSP chief said. Apart from the Philippines, other members of the Asean 5 are Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
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