On March 09, 2022, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha co-chaired a bilateral dialogue between the SBV and the US-ASEAN Business Council (US-ABC). The two sides discussed the focus and priorities in 2022 for the economic recovery and growth from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a number of specific areas, such as the creation of a legal corridor for the development of payment and financial technology (Fintech) in the banking sector, the administrative reform plan in 2022, green finance and sustainable investment, among others.
Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha speaks at the dialogue.
Attending the dialogue, from the US-ABC, there was Ambassador Michael Michalak, Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director; other Council members and representatives of the US-ABC member companies in Vietnam and ASEAN, such as: Citi, Visa, Bank of America, Nike, SAP, Boeing, etc. From the SBV side, there were leaders of some of the SBV’s entities.
At the dialogue, Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha expressed his desire to listen to the useful recommendations from the Council, as well as the sharing the difficulties and challenges from the US-ABC member companies in order to find possible solutions to maintain and improve the cooperation between the two sides, support the post-pandemic economic recovery, contribute to the investment and trade promotion, and create more job opportunities in Vietnam. Over the past time, the banking industry in Vietnam has implemented synchronous solutions to manage the monetary policy and the banking operations, focusing on regulating the liquidity in an appropriate manner, ensuring the money market stability, controlling the inflation, maintaining the macroeconomic stability. In addition, the SBV has also promptly reviewed, amended and supplemented relevant mechanisms and policies in order to utilize resources on removing difficulties for the production and business operations, supporting the people and enterprises that had been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to the recovery of the economic growth. As a result, the inflation in 2021 was controlled below the target of 4%, the core inflation was kept at a low level, contributing to maintaining the macroeconomic stability.
Overview of the dialogue.
In the medium and long term, the SBV would continue to implement the priority objectives of controlling the inflation, contributing to maintaining the macroeconomic stability, and promoting sustainable economic growth. However, the impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic have caused significant damage to the economy in recent months. Therefore, the SBV’s priorities in 2022 would continue to focus on a precautious and flexible approach in the policy management, the enhancement of the communication and information transparency in order to control the inflation expectations, and supporting businesses as well as the whole economy to recover, and minimizing the risks in the financial and monetary markets.
Ambassador Michael Michalak, Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director of the US-ABC, speaks at the dialogue.
Representatives from the US-ABC Mission thanked the SBV for the great efforts to promote the bilateral cooperation over the past time, and also made some recommendations and proposals in the fields of digital transformation, green finance and sustainable investment. Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha expressed high appreciation for the recommendations and proposals by the Council, and promised to assign the relevant entities to coordinate directly with the Council members to arrange further meetings and exchanges, as well as to share about the practical experience and difficulties in working with the private sector in order to promote the bilateral cooperation and mutual support, and to help Vietnam and the SBV in the economic recovery process.
LK