Concerns among some countries that the Chinese yuan is “a bit undervalued” are justified, Surin Pitsuwan, secretary general of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, said Saturday.

“In the last round of crisis, one thing that China didn’t do and was appreciated among us was to maintain the currency value. So I think whatever China does that won’t negatively affect ASEAN’s exports would be very helpful,” Surin told Dow Jones Newswires in an interview on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland.

Surin was referring to the Asian financial crisis between 1997 and 1998.

“If China brings down the value of its currency it will affect us and won’t be good for our economies…All I am asking for from them is to be considerate,” he said.

While China has faced constant pressure from the U.S. to let its currency strengthen further to create a level playing field in international trade, it has notably slowed the pace of the yuan’s appreciation in the past few months as the global economic slowdown started hurting its exports.

The 10-member ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Surin said the recently proposed $120 billion Asian Monetary Fund is expected to be endorsed at a regional summit meeting of ASEAN, Japan, China and South Korea scheduled to take place in April in Thailand.

The initiative, modeled on the International Monetary Fund and mooted since the 1997-98 financial meltdown that felled emerging Asian economies, could be deployed in the event of another crisis.

“I think the Asian Monetary Fund is something that is logical to contemplate, but how long it will take for it to be implemented is up to the leaders to decide,” Surin said.

He added that India recently has shown an interest in joining the discussion of the initiative. “If both China and India are in the process, the prospect will be very strong,” he said.

Surin said he expects Japan, China and South Korea, the three largest East Asian economies, to contribute “a larger proportion” to the fund.

However, he said the exact size of each country’s contribution to the fund ” has more to do with the ability by the leaders themselves” rather than based on the GDP size.”

Surin added that once the fund is in place, a regional supranational such as Manila-based Asian Development Bank can be in charge of overseeing it. (Dow Jones)