ALBA will start using the Sucre
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11-1-10
Freely translated by Anoosha Boralessa (June 2015). Not revised by www.bilaterals.org or any other organization or person.
ALBA will start using the Sucre
The exportation of Venezuelan rice to Cuba will be recorded as the first commercial transaction made in Sucres (the acronym for the Single System of Regional Payment). Sucre is a virtual “currency” which will be used in the Alba countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua, San Vincent and the Grenadines and Venezuela. There are 75 million consumers in the Alba market.
Ali Rodriguez Araque, the Venezuelan Minister of Economics and Finance, reported that following that transaction, Bolivia will buy asphaltic cement from Venezuela, using the Sucre as the currency of payment. Venezuela will reciprocate by buying from the Andean Bolivia, timber, food stuffs, textiles and artisanal products.
Although it has not been announced from when Nicaragua will begin to use this currency, Antenor Rosales, the President of the Board of Directors of the Nicaraguan Central Bank, explained that there are four strands to the new system:
– The unit of account itself: the Sucre;
– The Regional Monetary Council;
– The Chamber for Payment; and
– A Reserve Fund and the Trade Promotion Fund.
Rosales specified that the new currency, “will permit transactions taking place between members of Alba – TCP (The People’s Trade Treaty that is an alternative to the FTAs) to be assessed.” Second, the Regional Monetary Council, a body that will consist of Economic Ministers of member countries, shall be entrusted with defining policies for the new system.
The Chamber for Compensation will record all exports and imports made between the Alba countries in order to proceed to clear the appropriate payment. Finally, the Fund for Reserve and Trade Harmonization is entrusted with making payment.
The Sucre was approved in Cochamba, Bolivia. However, its real utility will lie as a vehicle for increasing trade between the Alba countries. The development of this trade “would imply more exports and new markets for Nicaragua’s goods and services”, said Rosales.
