MINISTER CALLS ON ASEM PARTNERS TO PURSUE PROMOTION OF REGIONAL FINANCIAL COOPERATION

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) - Malaysian Foreign Minister Anifah Aman
has called on Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) partners to pursue the promotion of
regional financial cooperation as well as put in place early warning systems and
mechanisms to prevent the resurgence of another financial crisis.

Foreign Ministry in a statement Wednesday said that Anifah made the call at
the plenary on recovery from the economic and financial crisis at the 10th ASEM
Foreign Ministers Meeting (ASEM FMM10) in Godollo, Hungary, which ended
Tuesday.

"Anifah also spoke on Malaysia's experience at mitigating the
impacts of the financial crisis and the serious implementation of an Economic
Transformation Programme.

"On the sidelines of the two-day meeting, he held bilateral meetings with
his counterparts from Slovenia, Latvia, Ireland, Czech Republic and Hungary to
discuss matters of mutual interest and opportunities for enhanced cooperation,"
the statement said here.

It said that a non-binding Chair's Statement was adopted at the meeting,
summarizing opinions and agreed positions of the ASEM member partners on
political, economic and socio-cultural issues, in global and regional terms.

The statement said that about 33 foreign ministers from 46-member nations in
the Asia and Europe regions attended the meeting.

The meeting's over-arching theme was "Working Together on Non-Traditional
Security Challenges" and it focused on addressing a variety of regional and
global issues.

Malaysia has been an active founding partner of ASEM since its establishment
in 1996, and the country's participation in ASEM FMM10 was a reflection of its
continued commitment to engage ASEM partners via this region-to-region platform,
it said.