Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (BBN) - The 17th SAARC Payment Council (SPC) meeting began in the country’s southeastern Cox's Bazar beach town on Thursday aiming to establish an interoperable system to manage cross-border payment with lower cost.
“We need to establish an interoperable system to manage cross-border payment using latest technology,” Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman said while inaugurating the meeting at Royal Tulip Sea Pearl Beach Resort in Cox’s Bazar.
At least 20 high ups from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lankan central banks are taking part of the two-day long SPC Meeting.
BB Governor Dr. Rahman also urged the SAARC member central banks to design a process to appropriately contextualize the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the regional level in the payment systems arena.
“I believe adoption of a realistic, pragmatic, and step-by-step approach towards solution of issues will open up new avenues of cooperation among the SAARC nations,” Dr. Rahman explained.
Among others, Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Harun Rashid Khan, Deputy Governor of BB Nazneen Sultana, SPC Chairman and Deputy Governor of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Saeed Ahmed and Deputy Governor of Nepal Rastra Bank Gopal Prasad Kaphle also spoke on the occasion.
SAARC Payments initiative is a regional forum created by SAARC FINANCE Group at the conference on ‘Towards a Regional Payment Group’ held at Central Bank of Sri Lanka in July, 2007 aiming to develop an understanding to promote cooperation among member countries to move forward in reforming their national payment and settlement systems and to facilitate trade and investment flows in the region.
BBN/SSR/AD