Bangalore: The Governors of Central banks of eight countries in the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) including India, Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will meet in Bangalore on June 16 to chart out the future of the union in adopting new technologies and admitting new members.

"The meet would discuss among others the technology up gradation and admitting new member countries in the ACU, thereby strengthening the system," a Reserve Bank of India (RBI) spokesman told reporters ahead of the 32nd annual meeting of the ACU.

Formed in 1974 and headquartered in Tehran, ACU has eight members- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The objectives of ACU are multilateral settlement of current account payments, conservation of Forex, promotion of monetary co-operation among central banks, increasing relationships among the banking systems of member countries and providing currency swap arrangements, officials said.

Stating that the functioning of the union has been smooth despite political uncertainties in the region, they said efforts were being made to include China, Maldives, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Malaysia.

The ACU transactions, which was at around $ 50 million in 1975 has grown to $ 6.9 billion in 2002, with India accounting to nearly 40 per cent of the trade.

RBI officials said the union offered other countries in the region an "incentive" to import from India as settlement of transactions was done once in two months.

PTI