Exim Bank hosts Asian Exim banks regional cooperation meet
Our Corporate Bureau
7 October 2005

Mumbai: At the the 11^th annual meeting of Asian Exim Banks Forum being hosted by Exim Bank of India in Goa, the Exim banks of India and Thailand signed a bilateral guarantee facility agreement for $50 million.

The meet also afforded the Thai Exim Bank an opportunity to sign a bilateral L/C confirmation facility agreement with Exim Bank of Malaysia. The event, which started yesterday, concludes this evening. The forum was initiated by Exim India in 1996 to enhance cooperation and forge a stronger link among its member institutions.

The meeting is being attended by the nine member institutions — India, Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and Australia with Asian Development Bank, Manila, being a permanent invitee and observers from KfW (Germany), BNDES (Brazil), OECD (Paris), UNCTAD (Geneva) and Sri Lanka.

The theme for the meeting was 'Promoting Regional Cooperation Through Trade Financing'.

T C Venkat Subramanian, chairman and managing director, Exim Bank of India, in his welcome remarks highlighted that the forum seeks to provide a mechanism for participating countries to enter into a process of dialogue while providing an opportunity for cooperation in areas that transcend trade and investment, such as social sectors capacity building and governance

China Eximbank's vice president Su Zhong, underscored the growing importance of the Asian region in international trade and added that Asian Exim Banks have played a unique and important role in both enhancing economic cooperation among different countries and invigorating regional economy.

Japan's Koji Tanami, deputy governor and managing director, JBIC, underlined the role of Asian Exim Banks in contributing to the stability and economic development of individual countries, of the region and eventually of the whole world by making the best use of financial tools and their status as governmental agencies.

Small and medium enterprises came in for sustained focus with case studies on SMEs bringing out the importance of SMEs as engines of growth, and issues on SME development along with Exim India's experience in SME financing and SME development.

Technical sessions covered the role of Asian Exim Banks in SME development led by Exim India, regional export financing initiatives led by ADB, perspective on export credit led by the OECD, global FDI trends and Korea Eximbank's Experience in FDI Financing and Role of Asian Exim Banks in Tsunami Reconstruction led by JBIC.

The presentation on Regional Export Financing Initiatives dwelt upon the need for a

New collaboration strategies between ADB and regional Exim banks helped evolve a broad structure for such cooperation. The OECD's arrangement on export credit issues related to WTO also came under the scanner.

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