SAARC Bank could be a possibility
View(s):If five countries from different continents can form a BRICS Bank, then it is better to think of forming a SAARC Bank along the same lines, HSBC India Chairperson Naina Lal Kidwai says.
Naina Lal Kidwai
‘BRICS’ nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa formed their own development bank to counter the West’s dominance in international finance. Making the keynote speech at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit’s ‘Banking in the new world’ session organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) on Wednesday, Ms. Kidwai said that such a bank could aim to promote trade and business ties across the member countries and the region.
“To promote trade, global connectivity is important to build. We need to invest heavily in technology to improve this aspect. Domestic banks could either develop a stronger regional presence on their own, which will take time and investment, or develop partnerships or relationships with banks in the trade partner countries, in order to support local businesses aiming to grow outside the country and support trade,” she proposed.
Calling attention to the opportunities Sri Lanka can leverage using the ‘India connect’, Ms. Kidwai said that as immediate neighbours, Sri Lanka and India have roles to play in each other’s growth as they indeed have played, over thousands of years of history and mythology through trade and culture.
Ms. Kidwai said that even India has been talking about merging its numerous state-run banks to form bigger banking groups and that a similar move by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka was in the right track.
“A stronger and well-capitalised banking system will be an important factor to support a country’s growth. The plan to have at least five domestic banks each having assets of 1 trillion Sri Lankan Rupees (about US$ 7.6 billion) sounds like a good proposal,” she said.
She also said US and Eurozone are still some distance away from a full recovery, and there is great expectation that other countries will fill in the gap to keep the global economic engines buzzing.
Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe in his speech at the Summit said that while going for the 2020 vision it’s important to realise that this is a make-or-break period. “It is important to decide if we are going to get out of it, go ahead of it or get caught to it like Latin America. Our only option is to formulate a set of strategies that will make us globally competitive,” Mr. Wickremesinghe said on Day 2 of the Economic Summit, delivering the keynote titled ‘Education – Critical Driver for Competitive Advantage’.
The Summit also saw a CEOs session with some of the top minds of the local corporate sector such as Ajith Gunewardene, Deputy Chairman of the John Keells Holdings PLC; Ashok Pathirage, Chairman, Softlogic Holdings PLC; Dhammika Perera, Chairman, Sampath Bank PLC; Ashroff Omar, CEO, Brandix Lanka Ltd.; and Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, Group CEO of Dialog Axiata PLC discussing the conduciveness of the country’s business setting, its innovation and growth.