On April 01, 2022, a delegation of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) attended the virtual ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies Meeting (AFCDM+3). The delegates attending the Meeting included Deputy Ministers of Finance and Deputy Governors of the Central Banks of ASEAN+3 countries, as well as the Director of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Organization (AMRO).
Delegates attending the Meeting.
At the Meeting, the discussions of the Deputy Governors and Finance Deputy Ministers focused on the following topics: (i) Global and regional macroeconomic situation and outlooks, post-pandemic economic recovery process, and risks that ASEAN+3 economies may face in the coming time; (ii) Cooperation progress under the framework of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization Agreement (CMIM); (iii) Operational status of AMRO; (iv) Implementation of the Asian Bond Market Initiative (ABMI); and (v) Strategic direction, as well as new initiatives within the ASEAN+3 finance process.
At the session on regional and world economic developments, in AMRO’s presentation, it was forecast that the growth of the ASEAN+3 region would reach 4.8% with an inflation rate of about 3.2%. According to AMRO's forecast, the countries in the region would continue to face risks from the disruption of the global supply chains and the tensions between Russia and Ukraine in the coming time. For Vietnam, the economic growth in 2022 is forecast to be at 7.0% and would continue to maintain this growth in 2023. Some policies recommended by AMRO for countries to consider include: (i) Increasing investment in infrastructure for the digital economy; (ii) Strengthening the room for the fiscal policy; (iii) Training high quality human resources; (iv) Enhancing the resilience of the regional supply chains; and (v) Strengthening the digital integration in the region.
Regarding the ongoing activities, AMRO and the Co-Chairs provided an update of the progress and consulted the Deputy Governors and Finance Deputy Ministers on the following matters: (i) Operational issues regarding the implementation of a third-party local currency swap mechanism within the framework of the CMIM; (ii) How to determine the new interest rate difference for the CMIM Agreement; and (iii) Deploying the 13th CMIM test run.
Speaking at the Meeting, the representative of the SBV highly appreciated AMRO for having effectively performed the functions of a macro supervisory agency of the countries in the region; besides, the SBV also proposed some recommendations to help ASEAN+3 countries deal with the technical issues within the framework of the CMIM Agreement, and to improve AMRO's operational processes; as well as a possible coordination mechanism among the countries in the region. In addition, the SBV also committed to working with ASEAN+3 countries to further promote the regional cooperation, as well as the relationship between the region and the international organizations and other partner countries in the post-pandemic context.
Toward the end of the Meeting, the Deputy Governors and Finance Deputy Ministers jointly shared the importance of strengthening the cooperation and the mutual support in the region in order to help the member countries to overcome the current difficult time, contributing to the regional economic recovery.
LK