Tokyo, May 31: Malaysian Prime Minister Mohamad Mahathir has on Thursday said a common regional trading currency should be considered in East Asia which will be based on gold in order to promote commerce rather than relying on the US dollar transactions by freeing the region.
According to Dawn news reports, the prime minister stated the proposed trade currency could be used in regional trading mechanism, but however, would not be able to replace the national currencies at the domestic level.
Addressing the Future of Asia summit in Tokyo, Mahathir stated, “In the Far East if you want to come together, we should start with a common trading currency, not to be used locally but for the purpose of the settling of trade.”
He added, “At the moment we have to depend upon the US dollar but the US dollar is also not stable. So the currency that we propose should be based on gold because gold is much more stable.”
Mahathir said the regional currency’s exchange rate would be based on the performance of the individual nations and that it would support harmonize the regional trade.
“That way we know much we owe, we know how much have to pay, in the currency of East Asia, ” said Mahathir, who is serving his second Prime Ministerial term in office after a surprise election win last year.
Amidst a regional financial crisis in 1998, the Malaysian President had defied foreign experts and further imposed capital controls in order to protect the economy, and Mahathir is a longtime critic of the currency trading.