JAKARTA, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia and Japan on Monday began efforts to actively encourage the use of rupiah and yen for transactions in bilateral trade and direct investment, the Indonesian central bank said here.
Under the joint efforts, rules were relaxed in a bid to encourage the use of the two currencies for transactions, the central bank, Bank Indonesia, said in a statement.
To pave the way for the move, Bank Indonesia and the Finance Ministry of Japan have appointed a number of banks which are capable of carrying out the task as cross currency dealers.
The Indonesian banks with the task of carrying out cross currency dealers in Indonesia include MUFG Bank, Bank BTPN, Bank Central Asia, Bank Mandiri, Bank Mizuho Indonesia, Bank Negara Indonesia and Bank Rakyat Indonesia.
The Japanese banks with the task include Mizuho Bank, MUFG Bank, Bank Negara Indonesia, and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation.
The move was expected to trim the countries' dependency on the U.S. dollar which has been fluctuating during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Indonesia and Japan have been promoting the usage of rupiah and yen for bilateral transactions since years ago, and the two countries' central banks have conducted currency swap deals.
The trade volume of the two countries reached about 32 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Japan is one of the top investors in Indonesia. Enditem
