Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, the chair of ASEAN in 2012, on Monday urged ASEAN Economic Ministers to take necessary measures to attract more financial support from dialogue partners for the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund.
With the Asian Development Bank support, the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund of about 500 million U.S. dollars was launched in May this year.
"The fund is still very small. It cannot sufficiently respond to the great need of the ASEAN connectivity," he spoke in his opening address of the 44th ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting and related meetings.
"Therefore, ASEAN Economic Ministers and ASEAN Finance Ministers need to take necessary measures to attract more financing partners to increase the fund size, especially the ASEAN plus three partners, East Asia Summit, and multilateral institutions," he said.
The premier added that strengthening the connectivity of ASEAN in physical and institutional infrastructure, and people to people connectivity is the key for narrowing development gap and ensuring successful integration of ASEAN.
The ASEAN Infrastructure Fund finances about six projects a year with a 75 million U.S. dollar lending cap per project.
Criteria for investments include their potential to cut poverty, increase trade and bolster investment.
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