Monday 05 January
2009, San José, Costa
Rica
Panamanians Back Cuban
Revolution
Landslide Kills At
Least 22 In Guatemala
Colombian Police Seize
740Kg of Cocaine
Constitutional Debate
Opens Political Year in
Venezuela
Sucre Following
Euro´s Path as ALBA Currency Unit
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Sucre Following Euro´s
Path as ALBA Currency
Unit
Caracas - Propelled by
the current world
financial crisis,
experts from the
Bolivarian Alternative
for the Peoples of Our
America (ALBA) are
outlining concepts for
developing a regional
monetary zone with the
'Sucre' as its currency
unit.
Venezuela´s Finace
minister Alí Rodríguez
announced just before
year´s end that sis ALBA
commissions will meet in
Caracas beginning on
Jan. 8 to draft a report
for the group´s head of
state about the launch
of the currency.
ALBA is made up of
Bolivia, Honduras, Cuba,
Nicaragua, Venezuela and
Dominica. The latter,
however, is
participating as an
observer in the regional
monetary zone project
because it already uses
the Caribbean Dollar, a
common currency unit in
several Eastern
Caribbean states.
The outcome of the Jan.
8 meeting in Caracas
will be discussed at an
ALBA-Petrocaribe
presidential summit
scheduled for the first
quarter of 2009.
Petrocaribe is an oil
supplying treaty which
allows member states to
receive Venezuelan oil
on preferential terms.
The idea of a regional
monetary zone with the
'Sucre' as its currency
unit was launched by
Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez at an ALBA
summit held in Caracas
on Nov. 26th.
The Sucre would reduce
the influence of the US
dollar at a time world
economy is experiencing
a general slowdown
because of US financial
crisis.
According to Rodriguez,
the idea is to create a
universal currency unit
and a World Central Bank
which eliminates the use
of a given country’s
currency as a pattern to
calculate the value of
the rest of the
currencies in the world.
In the case of ALBA, and
taking all these
processes into
consideration, we
consider it is time for
us to have our currency
unit in order to
facilitate trade within
the Latin American and
Caribbean region.
The Sucre would first
begin as a virtual
currency, as an exchange
pattern before being
coined as the ALBA
common currency.
According to Chavez, the
project is feasible,
since the Euro first
began as a virtual
currency called ECU
within the European
Union before becoming
the bloc’s official
currency. |
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