Peace Palace, Phnom Penh
19 November 2012

The ten ASEAN leaders plus their counterparts from the East Asia nations of China, Japan and South Korea joined together in the ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Commemorative Summit on the second day of the ASEAN Leaders’ Summit in Phnom Penh.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japan Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda attended the summit commemorating the 15th anniversary of the ASEAN Plus Three Cooperation.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao talked on the following proposals: boost the capacity of ASEAN for coping with the 1997 Asian financial crisis, actively cultivate an ASEAN bond market and consider the establishment of a regional investment bank. He also referred to the US$240 billion credit pool (Chiang Mai Initiative) that was launched in 2010.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, on the other hand, called for a need to establish social safety nets that will bring into motion preventive actions against potential liquidity problems. He also gave his support for the Asian bond market and mentioned the importance of food security as embodied in the emergency rice reserve consisting of 800 million tons. He said that the APT is a role model for regional cooperation.

The ASEAN Plus Three (APT) Cooperation covers the areas of food and energy security, financial cooperation, trade facilitation, disaster management, people-to-people contacts, narrowing the development gap, rural development and poverty alleviation, social welfare, human trafficking, labour, communicable diseases, environment and sustainable development, and transnational crime, including counter-terrorism.