Malaysia, Iran bank on US dollar hegemony alternative

verfasst von RK, 16.10.2003, 20:01

-->http://www.adelaideinstitute.org/Gold/malaysia_iran.htm

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/EG04Ae03.html


Malaysia, Iran bank on US dollar hegemony alternative

By Kalinga Seneviratne


KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's efforts to use the gold dinar for trade with

Iran is Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's latest initiative to overhaul

the international financial system, which he has long criticized as

being skewed toward rich countries and speculators.



If successful, this could be extended to 32 countries that have

bilateral payments arrangements (BPA) with Malaysia, Mahathir told an

international convention here on Tuesday on the gold dinar as an

alternative international currency.



It was the latest of Mahathir's attempts to sell the concept of using,

instead of the US dollar, the gold dinar - a monetary unit whose value

is based on the price of gold - in international settlements between

national banks, for instance (see Malaysia goes for gold, February 8).



The pilot scheme between Iran and Malaysia, which officials hope to

start this year, means that their bilateral trade would be denominated

in gold dinars, and that they would settle trade balances every three

months. During this period, all Malaysian exporters will be paid in the

local currency, ringgit, by Bank Negara (Malaysian Central Bank) and all

importers will pay the equivalent in the local currency as well to it.



Iran's Central Bank will do the same for the country's exporters and

importers. At the end of the three-month period, the two countries will

settle the deficit in gold dinars or an agreed currency.



But this experiment has bigger ramifications. Some say it is time, years

after the 1997 Asian financial crisis, to develop an alternative to the

current financial system. Others see it as loaded with political

meaning, as part of Malaysia's campaign to take up the cudgels for the

developing world - and the Muslim world.



"We need to make a stop to the artificial manipulation of currencies,"

said Raja Mohamad, vice president of the Malaysian Islamic Chamber of

Commerce and convenor of Tuesday's conference.



A publisher and marketing executive, Raja believes that gold-dinar trade

has another aspect to it - it can help forge unity among Muslim nations.

"It is because of the Muslim world's dependence on the United States

that the neighboring Arab countries were not able to stop the war on

Iraq," he argued."If we don't need to depend on the US dollar for trade

between our countries, that will be a good foundation to forge Muslim

unity," he said.



Local businessman Rosali Che Pin said:"If the gold dinar becomes a

reality for international trade between Muslim countries, we will be

very proud of it."



The gold dinar was the currency of the Muslim world until the collapse

of the Ottoman Empire in 1924. Today, Malaysia believes that using a

currency apart from the US dollar would help poor countries with small

foreign currency reserves to trade more freely.



But Bank Negara's assistant governor, Latifah Merican Cheong, warned

that"the [real] challenge now is how to develop the gold dinar and make

it credible so that traders are willing to use it".



Malaysia has already started talking to the Saudi Arabia-based Islamic

Development Bank and several countries about the use of the gold dinar

in international trade. Earlier reports said Turkish leaders had mooted

the idea.



Malaysia hopes to offer this to all its BPA partners - including

countries as diverse as Cuba, Brazil, Hungary and Myanmar - once the

scheme's credibility is established, officials say.



Malaysia also has an alternative trading arrangement with some

countries, which includes using palm-oil credit to pay for its purchase

of Russian jet fighters, North Korean insulators and, soon, for Indian

and Chinese construction services for a railway project here.



But the promoters of this scheme are quick to point out that they do not

want this trade to be restricted to Islamic countries. Muslim countries

can come in first, then others can join in, Raja says.



Realistically, he says, while Malaysia holds the chairmanship of the

Non-Aligned Movement and can push the alternative currency scheme, it

may not necessarily be welcomed by some member governments since"they

have been distracted by this Muslim terrorist tag" and may be wary of

taking action perceived to be anti-Western.



Thus far, Mahathir says, neither the US government nor the International

Monetary Fund (IMF) - both of which had objected to earlier proposals

for an Asian Monetary Fund to help countries with financial problems -

have raised objections to the gold-dinar scheme.



But Ralston Thiedeman, senior director of the Singapore-based Swiss Asia

Capital, told the convention that the establishment of the gold-dinar

currency"is in direct contradiction to and forbidden by the existing

rules of the IMF".



He added that an initial fallout of the scheme would be that countries

using the gold dinar would use fewer US dollars in their international

trade - and this would lead to the further weakening of the US currency.



Thiedeman also said that many of Malaysia's trading partners in the

Muslim world, which include Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, are not large

holders of gold in their central bank reserves. Thus, he believes that

the launching of a dinar scheme will have a"bullish" effect on the

international gold market.



Malaysia has already set up a secretariat for disseminating information

about the use of gold in international trade.



Mahathir said that the gold dinar trade would bring more stability to

world trade and national economies. He argued that currency traders have

turned national currencies into commodities and made transactions

"totally hidden from public eye".



While speculation in gold can still take place, Mahathir argued that it

would be minimal, because it would not be possible to deliver the gold

upon settlement."The amount would be too big and too cumbersome for the

rapid transactions of the currency traders," he pointed out.



Raja admits that Washington may try to sabotage the gold-dinar idea."No

doubt, the dinar [trade] will affect US power," he noted, but"we want

to ensure that the Islamic world can start something to change the

world."

(Inter Press Service)

Thread gesperrt

 

gesamter Thread:

• Die Große Mahathir! - dottore, 16.10.2003, 16:57
  • Er hat nie GOLD als GZ behauptet, für Außenhandelsdifferenzen mit Iran gedacht! (owT) - RK, 16.10.2003, 19:37
    • Malaysia, Iran bank on US dollar hegemony alternative - RK, 16.10.2003, 20:01
      • Re: Schnapsidee! - dottore, 17.10.2003, 13:15
        • Re: Schnapsidee! - RK, 17.10.2003, 21:38