The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has urged Asian countries to make substantial adjustments to keep their economies afloat and support growth amid the global financial crisis, according to a press release sent to Xinhua on Saturday.

The ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta made the appeal in a message to a forum attended by guest speakers Prof Masahiro Kawai, dean of the Asian Development Bank Institute and Dr William E. Wallace, leading economist of World Bank in Jakarta.

According to the press release, Prof. Kawai said at the forum " Obviously, Asia (including ASEAN and East Asia ) needs to adjust by rebalancing its sources of growth and turning to domestic demand-driven growth rather than export-driven growth."

Kawai said that since the financial crisis intensified in September 2008, the region has been confronted with many challenges arising from slowing growth, tighter external financing conditions, volatile capital flows, and increased vulnerabilities.

Nonetheless, Asia is in a better position to respond to the crisis because of its much better fundamentals compared with the crisis in 1997 and 1998.

"Asia is the only region that still shows strong growth in the global economy, hence Asia's policy is going to be quite important for the future of the global economy," Kawai said, adding that there is a need for more coordinated action because of high economic interdependence in Asia.