Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The nine-nation Asian Clearing Union (ACU) has decided to bring dynamism in its functioning through strengthening intra-forum trade with increasing the number of members particularly from among the CIS republics in Central Asia.
The decisions were taken at its 44th board of directors meeting, held in the capital Dhaka on Saturday with its Chairman and the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman in the chair.
“We’ll take fresh initiative to include different countries, particularly Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus, from CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) as new members of the union,” the new chairman told BBN in Dhaka after the meeting.
He also said the ACU will take initiatives to increase its intra-trade shortly.
Governors of Central Bank of Iran, Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, Nepal Rastra Bank, State Bank of Pakistan, Deputy Governors of Reserve Bank of India, Central Bank of Myanmar, Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh attended the meeting. The Secretary General of ACU Secretariat, based in Tehran was also present in the meeting.
In his introductory speech Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Dr. Valiollah Seif invited Da Afghanistan Bank to join the ACU as a distinguished member.
In her report, ACU Secretary General Mrs. Lida Borhan Azad reviewed the economic performance of the ACU member countries during the year 2014 with a special note of increase in volume of transaction from US$ 51.44 million in 1976 to $ 20.36 billion in 2014.
The total transactions in 2014 (including receipts, payments and accrued interest) channeled through the ACU mechanism is increased by $ 3.53 billion over the previous year.
Later on, all the central banks presented brief country reports on the economic and financial activities of their respective countries to the ACU Board of Directors.
The board discussed the recommendations of the Standing Technical Committee meeting held in the capital on Friday including re-opening the issue of use of domestic currency in ACU mechanism, implementation of web-based application for ACU messaging, setting up task-force for dispute resolution, unauthorized transactions through ACU mechanism, payment of interest on balances held in ACUD /ACUE accounts by banks maintaining such accounts, prescribe a minimum threshold amount that can be routed through member central banks and whether a member country can make it optional for its commercial banks to settle the export/import transactions with other member countries within the ACU mechanism etc. The Board approved the Annual Report 2014 of the ACU.
The meeting also discussed on non- performing loan management of the ACU member countries with a view to exchange lessons from other’s experiences.
SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of the BB presented paper on “Non-Performing Loan Management in Bangladesh”.
It also decided that the special discussion in the next meeting will be on “Financing External Trade-Issues and Challenges”
At the meeting, the governors of the Central Bank of Myanmar and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka were elected Chairman and Vice-chairman of the ACU respectively for the year 2016. The Central Bank of Myanmar has also been chosen to host the 45th ACU board meeting in the last of week of May 2016, according to an official announcement.
The ACU is an arrangement involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives through which intra-regional transactions among the participating central banks are settled on a multilateral basis.
The union started its operation in November 1975 to boost trade among the member-countries. Bangladesh and Myanmar joined the union as the sixth and seventh members in 1976 and 1977 respectively. Bhutan joined the ACU in December 1999 and the Maldives in January 2010.
The main objective of the union is to promote trade among the member-countries through making the transaction easier, economising the use of foreign-exchange reserves and minimising transfer costs.
BBN/SSR/AD
