[International] South Korea, Japan, and China agree on common currency

Finance ministers from South Korea, Japan, and China agreed to make an effort to introduce a common currency to be used in the Asian region as part of the drive to create a pan-Asian economic bloc.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank held in India, South Korean Finance Minister Han Duck-soo and his counterparts from China and Japan -- Jin Renqing and Sadakazu Tanigaki -- reached the agreement.

To that end, the top economic policy makers also promised to create a task force on the issue for each country by the end of this year, before commencing research needed to facilitate the launch of the common currency, named the ACU.

The ACU is regarded as a counterpart of the near-European-wide currency, the Euro. The value of the ACU will be determined by taking into consideration each country's currency, gross domestic product and trade volume, over which experts think participants need some time to narrow their differences.

At the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers' Meeting held later in the day, the three ministers agreed to start discussion on setting up what they called an "Asian Monetary Fund," where each will allocate some of their foreign reserves.

The ministers also pledged to raise the cap on the amount of emergency money to be doled out in case of a financial crisis in an Asian country from the current 35 billion USD to 75 billion USD.

Bak Hyeon, [e-mail]

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