ACU plans to boost intra-forum trade

The nine-nation Asian Clearing Union (ACU) plans to boost intra-forum trade through taking on board new members, particularly from among the CIS republics in Central Asia.
"We'll take initiatives to increase intra-ACU trade shortly," Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman told the FE after taking responsibility as new chairman of the trade-clearing union.
Dr Rahman took charge for the year 2015 in the opening session of the 44th ACU board-of-directors meeting at a city hotel Saturday.
At the meeting, Dr Valiollah Seif, governor of the central bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, handed over the charge to the BB governor.
Earlier, during the 43rd board meeting of the ACU in Iran last year, Dr Rahman was elected chairman of the union.
"We'll take fresh move to include different countries, particularly Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Belarus, from CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) as new members of the union," the new chairman said to explain his promotional plan.
He also said the new board of directors will try to bring dynamism in the ACU functioning through strengthening its capability.
Bangladesh's imports from other ACU-partner countries grew 20.3 per cent in 2014 over that of the previous year -- much higher than growth of the country's global imports during the year, according to the BB governor.
Exports from Bangladesh to other ACU countries, on the other hand, declined 11.3 per cent in 2014, against modest increase in global exports over the period, he added.
"This asymmetry of Bangladesh's imports from ACU-member countries being around twentyfold higher than her exports to them is not a sporadic occurrence but a longstanding situation...," the central bank chief said while presenting his country paper at the board meeting.
This circumstance, he stressed, indicates "the need and scope for forging stronger value-chain linkages with the export-surplus ACU trade partners, widening their openness to exports from Bangladesh and other import-surplus members in terms of tariff and non-tariff barriers". 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 intraregional 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.
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