KYOTO, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Finance Ministers of China, Japan and South Korea concluded their 7th trilateral meeting on Friday afternoon in the Japanese ancient capital of Kyoto, where they pledged to further strengthen financial cooperation and work for the multilateralization of the Chiang Mai Initiative.

Following is the background of the Initiative:     

    In May 2000, finance ministers of ASEAN, China, Japan and South Korea agreed to establish a regional financing arrangement called the "Chiang Mai Initiative" or CMI, named after the meeting venue, to swap foreign exchange reserves when necessary to fight against speculative attacks on their currencies.

    The initiative was aimed at preventing a recurrence of the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.

    The CMI has two components: an expanded ASEAN Swap Arrangement (ASA) and a network of bilateral swap arrangements among ASEAN countries, China, Japan and South Korea.

    The ASEAN Swap Arrangement of ASA preceded the regional financial crisis. ASA was originally established by the ASEAN central bank and monetary authorities of the five founding members of ASEAN with a view to help countries meet temporary liquidity problems. An expanded ASA now includes all then ASEAN countries with an expanded facility of 2 billion U.S. dollars.