KARACHI, Dec 20: Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, said on Saturday that there was a need for sustained efforts to achieve a common platform for integration of South Asian economies to facilitate timely trade payments and remittances.

Speaking at the opening session of the fourth quarterly meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Payments Council (SPC) meeting at the State Bank, Dr Shamshad Akhtar pointed out that the idea of having a regional payment initiative in the Saarc region was originated at the Saarc finance conference ‘Towards a Regional Payment Group’ held at the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in July 2007.

The governors of the Saarc Finance Group approved the proposal of establishing a Saarc Payments Initiative (SPI) at its 16th meeting held in Washington in October 2007.

The SPI is a regional forum created by central banks and monetary authorities of the group to have a common understanding and cooperation to help each other move forward in reforming their national payment and settlement systems (PSS) and also to establish an appropriate regional payment system that facilitates trade and investment flows in the region.

The vision of SPI is to create an efficient, robust, stable and convergent payments system for the Saarc region that benchmarks with international standards.

SPI is led by the SPC, an apex body responsible for policy making with regard to the activities of SPI.

The fourth quarterly meeting of SPC was chaired by Dr Ranee Jayamaha, Deputy Governor of Central Bank of Sri Lanka, who is also the chairperson of the council. Other representatives who attended the meeting were Mr Yaseen Anwar, Deputy Governor, State Bank of Pakistan, Bir Bikram Rayamajhi, Deputy Governor, Nepal Rastra Bank, Ms Aishath Zahira, Deputy Governor, Maldives Monetary Authority, Ms Janakie Mampitiya, Secretary and Director Payments and Settlement Dept Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Ms Rinzin Lhamu, Head Banking Division, Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan.