Finance ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on Thursday to launch bilateral capital and monetary ventures among member countries, under the so-called Asian Bond Market Development Initiative.

According to Thai News Agency, Deputy Director of Thailand's Fiscal Policy Office (FPO) Somchai Sajjaphong said that the ministers at the 11th ASEAN finance-ministerial meeting, held Thursday in Thailand's northern province Chiang Mai, have agreed to pool bilateral reserve funds and promote bilateral currency swaps between member countries.

ASEAN is estimated to have a combined sum of 80 billion U.S. dollars in liquidities readily available to finance various infrastructural development schemes in the respective member countries.

However, the proposed bilateral funds, which might expand to a multilateral level, are yet to be studied in detail and jointly approved by the ASEAN ministers. The ASEAN finance ministers are to forward the initiatives to an ASEAN Summit in Singapore later this year.

Phannee Sathavarodom, the FPO director, said Thailand might possibly set up a Thai Clearing House to act as regional center for ASEAN bond markets, as the growing size of Thailand's bond markets has accounted for 48 percent of the country's GDP, compared to 60 percent for Singapore.

Thailand and Singapore would work to materialize the bilateral transaction between the two countries' bond markets in two years, she added.