Under the facility, the requesting member countries can make withdrawals in US dollar, Euro or Indian Rupee in multiple tranches. So far, Bhutan and Sri Lanka have availed the aforesaid facility. This kind of agreement also helped promoting economic cooperation between member countries, besides providing them a back-stop arrangement to meet their balance of payments difficulties and short-term liquidity needs arising from market turbulence.
13. Now, turning to our objective on forging closer ties in macroeconomic policies, the progress has been slower. In my humble opinion, this I think is one area in which much more can be done given the nature of our common shocks, configuration of our economies and our cultural ties.