Jakarta (ANTARA) - President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) here on Tuesday witnessed the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on cooperation and coordination in increasing local currency transactions (LCTs) in Indonesia's transactions with partner countries.

According to an official statement received here, the signing ceremony was carried out by the National Local Currency Transaction (LCT) Task Force.

The LCT cooperation framework was agreed upon in the leaders' declaration at the 42nd ASEAN Summit in Labuan Bajo, East Nusa Tenggara.

The increase in local currency transactions aims to support economic stability by encouraging the use of local currencies in bilateral transactions among ASEAN countries.

The task force involved 10 ministries and agencies, and the MoU was signed by leaders/heads of the 10 ministries and agencies, including Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan; Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi; and Minister of Finance, Sri Mulyani Indrawati.

Minister of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), Erick Thohir; Governor of Bank Indonesia, Perry Warjiyo; and head of the Board of Commissioners of the Financial Services Authority (OJK), Mahendra Siregar, also signed the MoU.

The LCT National Task Force will serve as a coordination forum for strengthening policy synergy between ministries/agencies to increase the use of local currencies in Indonesia's bilateral transactions with key partner countries.

LCT implementation is expected to contribute positively to export-import activities, investment, cross-border payment transactions such as the cross-border QR payments, as well as support securities trading.

According to a statement released by Bank Indonesia, the LCT has been implemented by Indonesia and a number of countries in the region, namely Malaysia, Thailand, Japan, and China.

Meanwhile, Singapore and South Korea have agreed to build LCT implementation with Indonesia.


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Translator: Maria C, Kenzu
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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