On January 22, 2024, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Deputy Governor Pham Quang Dzung had a meeting with Mr. Winfired Wicklein, Director General of the Southeast Asia Regional Department at the Asian Development Bank (ADB). Also attending the meeting, there was Mr. Shantanu Chakraborty, ADB Country Director for Vietnam; Mr. Ron Slangen, ADB Country Deputy Director for Vietnam, together with other ADB experts. On the SBV’s side, there was Mr. To Huy Vu, Director General of the International Cooperation Department, and leaders of other relevant SBV departments.
An overview of the meeting
At the meeting, Deputy Governor Pham Quang Dzung warmly welcomed the working visit of the ADB mission to the SBV. The SBV Deputy Governor expressed his hope that Mr. Winfired Wicklein would support the further tightening of the good cooperative relations between the ADB and Vietnam, helping to develop Vietnam's economy strongly and sustainably, and to integrate more deeply into the regional and global economies, aiming to become an upper middle-income country by 2030 and a high-income country by 2045.
Deputy Governor Pham Quang Dzung speaks at the meeting
The SBV Deputy Governor spoke highly of the ADB's timely and effective support to the Government in general and the banking sector in particular over the past time through various loan and technical assistance projects, policy consultancy, and experience sharing, etc. The Deputy Governor hoped that, in the coming time, the ADB would consider and continue to provide more policy consultancy, mobilize non-refundable fundings for the banking industry, focusing on the sector’s priorities such as banking governance, monetary policy management, improvement of the legal frameworks for the banking inspection and supervision, apart from other important areas such as financial inclusion, green credit/green banking, digital transformation, as well as capital market development, insurance market, etc.
Mr. Winfired Wicklein, ADB Director General of Southeast Asia Regional Department, speaks at the meeting
For his part, Mr. Winfired Wicklein, Director General of the ADB’s Southeast Asia Regional Department, said that in order to meet the increasing demand for development resources from the member countries to enhance the internal economic strengths, promptly respond to the impacts of factors such as climate change, energy transition, green growth, etc., the ADB has also quickly carried out reforms and adjustments to its organizational model and methods of mobilizing financial resources, etc., to be able to promptly meet the demand for financial resources of the member countries, including Vietnam. According to the commitments in the Country Partnership Strategy (CPS) for the 2023-2026 period, the ADB would support the Government of Vietnam about USD 1 billion per year, focusing on (i) transition to a green economy, and (ii) Development of the private sector and the promotion of social equity to support Vietnam's economic development in a green, sustainable, low-carbon, climate change-adaptive direction, including mobilizing resources from the private sector through the form of public-private partnership (PPP). Therefore, in order to absorb the above capital resources, Mr. Winfired Wicklein hoped that the Government would consider to shorten the process of receiving loans, and the ADB is ready to support and cooperate with the Government to speed up the process of receiving and using loans.
Moreover, Mr. Winfired Wicklein also shared information about the visit of the ADB President to Vietnam (scheduled on March 11-15, 2024) and the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the re-establishment of the credit relations between the ADB and Vietnam on the occasion of the ADB President’s visit to Vietnam.
Toward the end of the meeting, Deputy Governor Pham Quang Dzung said that, regarding the above-mentioned matters, the SBV would closely coordinate with the relevant Ministries and agencies to research, promptly report and propose appropriate solutions to the Government. For the working visit of the ADB President, the SBV Deputy Governor assigned the International Cooperation Department to discuss and coordinate with the ADB’s Viet Nam Resident Mission (VRM) to make all necessary arrangements in preparation for the ADB President’s visit.
Le Hang