DHAKA, July 12 (Xinhua) -- Bangladesh has been in a bid to curb U.S. dollar dependency for transactions, introducing trade transactions in other currencies including Chinese yuan and Indian rupee.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Pranay Verma launched the initiative at an event in Dhaka on Tuesday.
"We're in the process of introducing a dual currency card. We're expecting it by December," said the Bangladeshi official.
Bangladesh's state-owned Sonali Bank and private Eastern Bank Limited (EBL), and the State Bank of India and ICICI Bank are participating in the settlement of trade transactions in rupees.
Owing to the foreign exchange market volatility, Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves dropped below 30 billion dollars for the first time in almost seven years in the first week of May.
Bangladesh's foreign exchange reserves hit an all-time high of 48 billion dollars in August 2021.
In a bid to boost shrinking forex reserves, the central bank has taken various measures since last year and is turning to alternative currency arrangements including the use of the Chinese yuan in international transactions.
BB has previously paved the way for commercial banks in the country to maintain correspondent accounts in yuan to facilitate cross-border trade based on the Chinese currency.
BB issued a circular in September last year, saying, "It has been decided that ADs (Authorized Dealers) maintain accounts in CNY (the Chinese currency) with their correspondents/branches abroad for settlement of cross-border transactions executed in this currency."
Al Mamun Mridha, secretary general of the Bangladesh China Chamber of Commerce and Industry, has said that adding the yuan as a currency for bilateral trade between Bangladesh and China was a "very useful step." ■
