South Korea, China, and Japan have agreed to bolster their efforts to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Plus Three (APT) by strengthening their roles in a regional financial safety net under the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization.

The APT includes the ten Southeast Asian nations as well as South Korea, China and Japan.

The Finance Ministry said Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun and his Chinese and Japanese counterparts agreed in a meeting in Vietnam on Wednesday to establish financial crisis prevention measures.

The finance ministers of the three nations will review methods of collaboration with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in addition to the fund that was established to provide support to nations in a financial crisis. The fund is currently worth twelve billion dollars.

In addition, the APT will launch in May a regional macroeconomic monitoring organization that analyzes and keeps an eye on the economic situation in the ASEAN plus three nations. China and Japan will head the organization for the first three years.