The central bank governors of the eight members of ACU -- Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka -- will attend the meeting at Hotel Sheraton, a senior official of Bangladesh Bank told the news agency yesterday.

Central bank governors of non-member Maldives, Iraq and Afghanistan will also be present at the meeting as observers.

Some 26 foreign delegates from the member countries and ACU secretariat would participate in the board meeting. A 5-member delegation of Bangladesh Bank, led by its Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, will represent Bangladesh in the meeting.

Other members of the Bangladesh Bank delegation are deputy governor Allah Malik Kazemi, executive directors Khandakar Muzaharul Huq and Yasin Ali, and general manager Belayet Hossain.

Finance and Planning Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam is scheduled to inaugurate the board meeting on May 15. Besides attending the board meeting, central bank governors of the Saarc countries would hold meetings on the sidelines.

Bangladesh Bank officials said the meeting would take stock of the ACU activities during the last year and look for further deepening the cooperation among the member-states.

"ACU helps deepening regional integration of trade," said a senior official. He informed that Bangladesh settle a bimonthly payment of US$ 350-400 million with the ACU.

In the 36th meeting, delegates will elect the Board chairman and vice chairman for the year 2007 and decide the venue and date of the next board meeting.

The Asian Clearing Union, basically a clearing and settlement organisation, was founded in 1974 with headquarters in Tehran.

Its objectives include multilateral settlement of current account payments, conservation of forex, promotion of monitory cooperation among central banks, increasing relationship among banking system of member-countries and providing currency swap arrangements.

The annual board meeting of the ACU is hosted by member-countries on rotation.

The ACU transactions are growing since 1975 and it has not registered any defaulters so far. The central banks of the eight member countries, not their governments, are involved in its operations.