Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gestures during a press conference at the ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne, Australia, March 5, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

MELBOURNE, Australia - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday announced a billion-dollar fund to boost clean energy investment in Southeast Asia.

In a speech to the chief executive officer Forum at the 2024 ASEAN-Australia Special Summit in Melbourne, Albanese unveiled the two billion Australian dollar ($1.29 billion) Southeast Asia Investment Financing Facility.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that two-way trade between Australia and ASEAN members passed 178 billion Australian dollars ($115 billion) in 2022

To be managed by government agency Export Finance Australia, the fund will provide loans, guarantees, equity and insurance to bolster two-way trade and investment with ASEAN member nations and support the clean energy transition.

"Australia and Southeast Asia must together face this moment with a sense of optimism and urgency," Albanese said. "Acting on climate change is an environmental necessity for our region, it is also a transformative economic opportunity."

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The Australian prime minister said that two-way trade between Australia and ASEAN members passed 178 billion Australian dollars ($115 billion) in 2022, making the bloc the country's second-largest trading partner behind China.

In addition to the new financing facility, Albanese announced an extra 140 million Australian dollars ($91 million) over the next four years for the existing Partnerships for Infrastructure Program, which funds and supports sustainable infrastructure projects in Southeast Asia.