The Council has had the honor of hosting a dialogue with the 10 ASEAN Finance Ministers and American business leaders for the last several years This year’s mission to the AFMM is timely given the current global economic and financial crisis and coming on heals of the recent G20 Summit and on the eve of the ASEAN+3 Summit.

"Recognizing the leadership and challenges of ASEAN's finance ministers in responding to the current financial crisis, the Council's Financial Services Working Group offered its continued support to the ministers and the ASEAN Secretariat,” Mr. Wolf said. “As U.S. financial institutions operating in the ASEAN market, we are investing in the region, providing jobs and offering important products and services to the ASEAN people. We wanted the ministers to know of our sincere desire to support the ASEAN market through the crisis."

Given that a number of ASEAN nations are facing increased economic challenges resulting from significant drops in their exports, our delegation was able to exchange views with the Finance Ministers individually and in a group on the kinds of regional and national policy responses they believed would best support economic recovery.

Piyush Gupta, Citibank’s CEO for Southeast Asia Pacific region noted: “We remain very bullish on the region, and believe that American institutions like Citi have an important role to play in intermediating the flows of capital that are critical to the region's ongoing growth. We applaud the ASEAN governments on the ongoing effort to create an economic community, and are committed to partnering in this process through our fifteen thousand employees and five million customers in the region."

During the two-day mission, in addition to the Council’s dialogue with the ten ASEAN finance minister the delegation also met with H.E. Korn Chatikavanij, Thailand’s Minister of Finance and Khun Thirachai Phuvanatnaranubala, Chairman of the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum and Secretary General of Thailand Securities Exchange Commission.

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The US-ASEAN Business Council and affiliates are dedicated to strengthening bilateral and US ASEAN relations and building strong economic and commercial ties. Members of the Council include Fortune 1000 companies in support of promoting trade, investment, and technology cooperation, advancing US ASEAN relations through strong participation in public-private partnerships, and committing to development and corporate social responsibility. The Council's members are represented in diverse industries, including aerospace, agribusiness, automobiles, computers and information technology, consumer goods, energy exploration and development, express delivery services, financial services, health care and pharmaceuticals, media & entertainment, mining, software, and telecommunications.

For information on the US-ASEAN Business Council or general information visit www.us-asean.org.