Vietnamese, Lao central banks discuss cooperation in using local currencies in bilateral trade

Vientiane – The State Bank of Vietnam and the Bank of Laos have jointly organised a conference to share experience in promoting the use of respective domestic currencies in bilateral trade and investment cooperation activities to prevent external risks.

Vietnam is currently the third largest trade partner of Laos with a long-standing trade and investment partnership.

This is an important basis for the two sides to promote the use of their domestic currencies in the coming time. The control of the common payment system of the two countries will be managed by the Vietnam National Payment Corporation and the Lao National Payment Network Co. Ltd.

At the conference, the two sides introduced the Vietnam-Laos cross-border retail payment connection project using QR codes, saying the system is currently in the preparation stage with its first phase expected to be launched in September.

Vietnamese banks engaging in the project include nine Vietnamese and 13 Lao banks.

Countries in the ASEAN region, including Laos, have switched to using domestic currencies in trade and investment to prevent risks from political, geopolitical, economic, and financial changes.

Overall weak credit demand in the market, with consumption growth still sluggish, is causing banks that do not meet their credit growth targets to have quotas proactively transferred by the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to banks with better capabilities.

The State Bank of Vietnam set the daily reference exchange rate at 24,242 VND/USD on August 2, down 3 VND from the previous day.