JAKARTA- Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) must find ways to get 118 millions of people who live with income of $1.25 per day out of poverty, detikcom online news reported here on Friday.

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"Our ability to eradicate poverty becomes an important issue in the region. Currently, there are 1.4 billions of people living with income of $1.25 per day and 118 million of them are in ASEAN countries," said the president while opening the ASEAN Financial Minister Meeting in Bali province.

Therefore, he said, governments of ASEAN countries must find ways to connect poor people to financial sector as they are not touched by financial institutions like banks of insurance companies.

"Innovative financial solutions must be adopted to eradicate poverty so that they could increase their income," he said.

He took an example of what Indonesia has been done related to the issue.

"We adopt a program called 'the People Business Credit' that has been conducted by commercial banks but 70 percent of the credits are guaranteed by the government. This aims to develop small-medium business sector," he said.