Central bank of Islamic Republic of Iran hosted Standing Technical Committee (STC) meeting of the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) on 13 April 2015. The meeting was chaird by Mr. Kamyab, Vice Governor of CBI and ACU Alternate Director. Mr. Yaghoobi, Director General of International Affairs and ACU Officer-in-charge, Mrs. Borhan-Azad, ACU Secretary General, and delegates of the ACU member central banks attended the meeting.
At the outset, Mr. Kamyab warmly welcomed the attendees in the meeting. He applauded active participation of the member central banks, highlighting the commitment of all ACU members for more effective operation of the ACU mechanism and expanding regional trade and monetary cooperation amongst the member countries.
Mr. Kamyab emphasized that Iran would look forward to enhance the trade relations with the ACU member countries and add value into the role of the ACU in the days ahead. He hoped that the opportunities for investment and trade with the neighboring countries, particularly the ACU member countries, would be improving in the near future.
He also wished for fruitful deliberations at the meeting, leading to beneficial cooperation amongst the members.
Lida Borhan Azad, ACU secretary general, also welcomed the participants. She appreciated the CBI’s endeavors to host the meeting, making the event successful. She stated that the members’ practical participation, reflect valuable advocates for smoother functioning of the ACU mechanism and enriching the Union in the coming years.
Mrs. Borhan-Azad also briefed the participants with the mandates of 43rd meeting of the ACU Board of Directors held in Iran on 23 May 2014 as well as topics of discussions for the STC meeting.
The agenda for the meeting included using local currencies in the ACU mechanism, implementing web-based application for messaging, setting up taskforce for dispute resolution, and other technical issues. The agenda items were discussed in the meeting.
The ACU was established in 1974 with its headquarter located in Iran. Currently, the ACU members are central banks/monetary authorities of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The objectives behind establishing the ACU are as follows:
- To provide a facility to settle, on a multilateral basis, payments for current international transactions among the territories of participants;
- To promote the use of participants' currencies in current transactions between their respective territories and thereby effect economies in the use of the participants' exchange reserves;
- To promote monetary co-operation among the participants and closer relations among the banking systems in their territories and thereby contribute to the expansion of trade and economic activity among the countries of the ESCAP region; and
- To provide for currency swap arrangement among the participants so as to make Asian Monetary Units available to them temporarily.