Four ASEAN member countries agree on using local currencies in regional trade, investment

CHIANG RAI, THAILAND, April 5 (TNA) - The central banks of Thailand and three other member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have agreed on the use of local currencies, rather than world major currencies, in trade and investment in the region. BOT Assistant Governor Alisara Mahasandana on Friday told journalists of the agreement in Chiang Rai Province in the Thai North, where the 23rd ASEAN Finance Ministers’ Meeting, the 5th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting and related forums were held during April 2-5. Alisara stated that BOT signed the agreement with the Bank Indonesia (BI), the Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas during the four day-regional gathering in Chiang Rai, aimed to avoid impacts from unstable foreign exchange rates and to cut their costs on the management of risk factors from the unstable foreign exchange rates. Besides, BOT and the Central Bank of Myanmar initally agreed on the same issue, expected to be materialized in the future, aimed to facilitate the border trade between the two neighboring countries. According to the BOT assistant governor, the Thai central bank has sufficient tools to practically handle the unstable foreign exchange market in order not to cause any adverse effect on the country's financial stability, as well as sufficient tools to support the domestic business sector to cope with unstable foreign exchange rates. The BOT assistant governor said that the Thai central bank also has a policy on promoting financial institutes in the country and in the region to operate their banking services based on the good governance principle and by taking long term social and environmental impacts into consideration, with copies of the BOT's guidelines to be distributed to banks and other financial institutes in Thailand soon. (TNA)