The central banks of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are working on the implementation of a roadmap for increasing mutual settlements in national currencies. The map is being developed by a specially created expert group of representatives of the main banks of the SCO countries, SCO Secretary General Zhang Ming said.
RIA Novosti reported that long-term prospects for trade and economic cooperation within the SCO are associated with the need for a gradual transition to the free movement of goods, capital, services and technologies, Zhang Ming explained. An important factor in this context is the consistent expansion by member states of the practice of using national currencies in mutual settlements.
At a meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO Member States in Samarkand in September 2022, a roadmap was adopted to gradually increase the share of national currencies in mutual settlements of the SCO member states.
“Today, the practical implementation of this document is on the agenda,” Zhang Ming emphasized. – Relevant work is being carried out within the framework of a specially created and regularly meeting expert group represented by representatives of the central banks of the SCO countries. Issues of expanding the use of national currencies are also being promoted on the platform of the SCO Interbank Association, a public structure created to organize a mechanism for financing and banking investment projects supported by the governments of the SCO member states.
Topical today is the expansion of the use of national currencies in trade finance operations, the intensification of work on the formation of a system of cross-border payments in national currencies and the exchange of relevant financial information. Obviously, the development of mechanisms for financing investment projects acceptable to all parties, the creation of the Development Bank and the SCO Special Account will help to fill practical interaction with new content.
CentralasianLIGHT.org
January 9, 2023