Bank of Thailand and the central bank of Indonesia on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding to promote the use of baht and rupiah currencies in bilateral trade and investments between the two countries.
Currently, 85 percent of the trade and investments between the private sectors of the two countries use US dollars as the common currency in financial transactions and 15 percent of transactions use local currencies.
Mrs Chanthawan Sucharitkul, the assistant governor for organizational strategy and relations of the BoT, said that the MOU would promote the use of baht and rupiah currencies in financial transactions by more than 15 percent with lesser dependence on US dollars.
On the same day, the Bank Negara Malaysia or the central bank of Malaysia signed similar memorandum of understanding with the Indonesian central bank to promote the use of ringgit and rupiah in financial transactions.
Two-way trade between Thailand and Malaysia now worth about $20 billion annually while two-way trade between Thailand and Indonesia worth about $15 billion.
