7th ADCOM Meeting of IMF Capacity Development Office in Thailand

The meeting was also attended by representatives of other beneficiary countries, namely Lao P.D.R. and Cambodia; the donors for the CDOT's operations, including Japanese Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Thailand; as well as the IMF, including representatives from CDOT, the Institute for Capacity Development, the Asia and Pacific Department (APD), the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD), of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM), the Statistics Department (STA), the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP), Singapore Regional Training Institute (STI), and the IMF Resident Representative Offices in the beneficiary countries.

The deliberations and discussions at the Meeting focused on: (i) Modalities for CDOT to further focus on strengthening the capacity to address the macroeconomic challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) Recommendation on further integration between the IMF's work on capacity development and the Fund's monetary monitoring efforts, taking into account the emerging priorities such as payments and crypto currencies, climate change and the environment; (iii) Addressing the key macroeconomic requirements of the Member countries in the medium and long term to improve the macroeconomic management and institutions, and to restrict COVID-related vulnerabilities, focusing on six areas of CDOT's activities, namely: external sector statistics; government financial statistics; macroeconomic management; monetary and foreign exchange operations; public finance management and treasury operations; and (iv) Modalities to improve the remote capacity development activities.

Within the framework of the Meeting, the countries expressed high appreciation for the support of the IMF and the Governments of Japan and Thailand for CDOT's activities, as well as the technical and training support for countries in the region. CDOT's capacity development projects in fiscal year 2021 have really met the needs of the relevant ministries and agencies in the region, focusing on three key areas of an analytical framework on the economy and statistics, responses to COVID-19, and the emerging trends in the banking and finance sector such as digital transformation, sustainable finance, etc. The countries also recognized the professional exchanges, discussions and recommendations within the framework of CDOT’s projects, which have made a positive and timely contribution to the analyses, outlook forecasts, planning and the management of the monetary policies in the countries in the context of severe impacts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic…

Speaking at the Meeting, the representatives of Vietnam and other beneficiary countries raised several issues as well as their needs for CDOT's support in capacity development in the future. Related to the theme on managing the impacts of the pandemic on the macro finance, the SBV proposed to CDOT about Vietnam's assistance requirements, focusing on current activities and projects implemented by CDOT in Vietnam on external sector statistics; building a policy analysis and forecast system; budget management; tax management; tax policy; treasury management; public debt management; international financial integration; macroeconomic forecasts; training and capacity building for banking officials; developing an economic model to assess the impacts of the COVID-19 outbreaks on the economic growths of different countries around the world, and appropriate response policies; the guidelines on development of the real estate price index, and methodology for wage price index (WPI) and the services producer price index (SPPI), the input producer price index (IPPI). In relation to the emerging trends, Vietnam recommended to receive further attention and support for the training, intensive training on the development of a policy framework for green finance, including green credit, to facilitate the risk management, skill and best practice development in green projects, thereby creating a favorable environment for attracting more private capital into green projects; the application of the information and digital technology in the banking sector in order to fulfill the tasks set out in Decision No.810/QD-NHNN dated May 11, 2021 on the Scheme for Digital Transformation of the Banking Sector to 2025, with Vision to 2030. Concerning the challenges for the capacity development activities in the virtual format, the SBV shared its views that based on the experience with the new tools and working methods in the past year, it has been shown that most of the meetings and discussions could still be effectively delivered and facilitated using virtual technologies. However, it is undeniable that the physical presence is better, not only for certain types of meetings in general, but also for maintaining a culture of teaching and learning, and for a better sense of cohesion.

CDOT Meetings are a forum for the participants to discuss, share their views, assessments and experience on the implementation, development and exploitation of the technical assistance, as well as the requirements in the future. Thereby, CDOT Meetings can associate the countries' demands and plans with the donors' capabilities and ability to deliver, and thus the beneficiary countries' capacity can be strengthened, helping to achieve the goal of a region of a stable and sustainable financial development.

LK