As the potentially limitless range of cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and ASEAN aspires to reach new levels, it is especially important to accelerate transition to national currencies, Russia's Minister for Integration and Macroeconomics of the EEC Sergey Glazyev told Sputnik.
“This is an imperative for us; we can no longer trade in Western currencies. But it takes time for our partners to fully appreciate the benefits and importance of a transition to national currencies," the minister said.
ASEAN-Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) Days are currently being staged at the ASEAN Secretariat to mark the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between ASEAN and the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC).
Cooperation between the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and ASEAN has seen record double-digit growth rates this year, and is expected to continue further at this impressive rate, Glazyev underscored. The emerging priority areas have been tourism, mineral fertilizers, fuel supplies, and the construction of energy infrastructure, from thermal power plants to nuclear power plants, on our part, he said. On the part of ASEAN member-states, these are: supplies of tropical foods, consumer goods, furniture, textiles, etc.
In trade turnover, Russia offers ASEAN countries an opportunity to use communication systems between banks alternative to SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications). While SWIFT remains the primary method for handling international payments, Russia, in response to US sanctions, initiated the establishment of its unique national payment system, the System for Transfer of Financial Messages (SPFS). SPFS facilitates the transmission of financial messages between banks, regardless of whether they are located within or beyond the Russian Federation.
Furthermore, Glazyev said, “we are talking about the need to start using Russian insurance, including a reinsurance company created in the Eurasian Union, as the reliability of our insurance is no worse than that of Lloyd’s.”
Conceding that this takes time to explain things to trade partners, Glazyev insisted that if mutual cooperation “bottlenecks” linked to the financial sphere are eliminated, “a growth rate of trade turnover of at least 10% annually could be maintained.” And, of course, he added, “joint investments also require a revision of state monetary policies, and the expansion of lending instruments in rubles.”
Weighing in on the dedollarization process, Sergey Glazyev underscored that there is still a lot of work to be done by the monetary authorities. He would like to “see more activity on the part of EEC central banks, because in the absence of such systematic work of central banks to switch to settlements in national currencies, it is impossible to accumulate afore-said currencies, which need to be exchanged and sold.” Currently, a lot of the mutual trade spontaneously proceeds in Chinese yuan, he added, saying that local businesses are accustomed to China’s currency as the Asian giant has enjoyed a strong and long-standing presence in the region.
Amid the US dollar’s creeping decline as the currency of choice for global trade and central bank reserve holdings, Moscow and its partners have been ramping up trade in local currencies. Accordingly, the Russian ruble’s share has been growing very strongly. Thus, in exports, over half of payments are in rubles, acting Federal Customs Service chief Ruslan Davydov told Sputnik on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok earlier in the year. He added that in general, ruble payments "account for more than a third of overall trade turnover.”
Furthermore, a law creating a new digital ruble was approved by the Kremlin this year. It is the third form of the Russian national currency, alongside printed bank notes and non-cash bank cards. Despite some superficial resemblances to a cryptocurrency, the digital ruble’s state backing gives it a stability and legitimacy that other highly unregulated digital currencies lack. On August 1, bank-to-bank (B2B) transfers became the first part of the new currency format to be launched.
“We have our own model of a global settlement currency that could replace the current IMF reserve currencies. It can be constructed on the basis of a basket of currencies of BRICS countries and a basket of commodities. The corresponding mathematical model shows its extreme stability and attractiveness. I think that the development of digital technologies, ambitious plans to use the digital ruble, yuan, rupee, will allow to switch to payments in digital national currencies next year,” Sergey Glazyev said.
“Digital currencies allow for the exchange of goods bypassing banks. Payments and settlements are made through the blockchain. All this could become a good basis for the introduction of a new digital international settlement currency on the basis of an international agreement,” Glazyev stressed.
It should be noted that dethronement of the US greenback as the dominant global currency has been especially linked with BRICS. Ways to sidestep the dollar and Western-dominated financial institutions via expanded trade in local currencies were among the key items on the agenda of a summit of the BRICS group of major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - which wrapped up on August 24 in Johannesburg. The gathering, which ended with an announced expansion, with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates invited to join the club, stressed the importance of encouraging use of local currencies in international trade and financial transactions.