The cooperation has been in place since November 2018 as a follow up to the agreement between President Joko Widodo and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to support monetary and financial stability in the two countries.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), on Thursday (Nov 5), agreed to extend bilateral financial cooperation involving US$10 billion for another year.

"The cooperation has been in place since November 2018 as a follow up to the agreement between President Joko Widodo and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to support monetary and financial stability in the two countries," Executive Director of Bank Indonesia's Communication Department, Onny Widjanarko, noted in a press statement released on Thursday.

The cooperation comprises the Local Currency Bilateral Swap Agreement (LCBSA) and Bilateral Repo Agreement (BRL), he stated.

LCBSA enables the two countries' central banks to exchange their local currencies to the tune of 9.5 billion Singapore dollars, or Rp100 trillion (nearly US$7 billion).

Meanwhile, BRL facilitates repo transactions between the two central banks to obtain liquidity in the US dollar to the tune of US$3 billion by utilizing their government bonds issued by the Group of Three (G3) countries -- the United States, Japan, and Germany -- as guarantee.

The cooperation agreement was extended for the first time in November 2019.

The second extension of the cooperation agreement demonstrates the commitment of both nations to support one another to build trust in the economic conditions of the two countries in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Translator: Ahmad Buchori/Suharto
Editor: Fardah Assegaf
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