Calls for pre Asean Parliament sitting

Such close cooperation will help strengthen the financial sector and regional economies, he said.

"We are experiencing less impact from the US financial crisis (compared to what happened to the region a decade ago)," Surin said.

The 10 Asean leaders and top officials of key international organisations attending the event should come up with concrete measures to secure Asean and the global community from the financial meltdown.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, World Bank president Robert Zoellick, World Trade Organisation director-general Pascal Lamy and International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn would join Asian Development Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda and UN Conference on Trade and Development secretary-general Supachai Panitchpakdi for the Global Dialogue agenda on December 18.

The leaders will have a brief exchange with Asean and search for the solution to the financial crisis during the meeting.

Surin said he would also encourage Asean countries and people in the region to increase the number of bonds traded in the market to securitise capital in the region.

Asean has stashed away more than $340 billion in reserves, which have not yet been invested to benefit the economic system, he said. Asean members could possibly utilise these enormous savings to promote economic growth among member states.

Asean would eventually face an economic slowdown caused by the falloff in tourists and cooling of export growth to partner countries. Such a problem would force factories to close down in the future.

To ensure that the region would feel less pain, Asean cooperation in various sectors was key to boosting the efficiency of domestic industries.

For instance, Asean will concentrate more on non-tariff barriers by focusing on green production to ensure sustainable export growth. The region will also try to attract investment and protect basic industries to ensure its competitiveness.

Food security would also be one of the key issues of this summit.

Despite falling in the past few months, the global oil price is volatile. Oil price hikes have a direct effect on food prices, which have shot up in the past. Asean, with its food-growing countries, should come up with a security plan to ensure that the region would not face the same problem of food inflation.

Thailand's political turbulence should not interfere with its role as the host country for the summit, Surin said.

The government is managing the situation. The fact that the gathering will take place in Chiang Mai, which is in the North, should ensure a smooth meeting attended by the leaders of Asean and delegations as well as keep the summit away from the pressure of political tension in the country.

"Whatever has happened in Bangkok is only an 'inconvenience of parliamentary democracy'. We have to leave it alone as long as the activity has followed the Constitution," Surin added.