The UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development, H.M. Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, visited Vietnam from May 30 through June 1, 2017 to explore paths to progress on financial inclusion. In the program of the working visit, Queen Máxima had meetings with President, Chairperson of the National Assembly, Leader of Government, SBV Governor and Ministers of relevant ministries.
These events created opportunities to promote the establishment of the strategy and policies on financial inclusion, thereby connecting and attracting support on the technical, financial resources and sharing in financial inclusion in Vietnam, contributing to enhancing the public awareness and providing the actual interest for people.
At the official meeting with Queen Máxima, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) stated that, currently, many countries are interested in financial inclusion, including the Government of Vietnam who pays special attention to it and assigned the SBV to co-ordinate with relevant ministries to build up the strategic framework on financial inclusion. The SBV has implemented a wide range of activities related to financial inclusion including micro credit, high technology agricultural credit, etc.
Queen Máxima of the Netherlands was designated UNSGSA by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon in 2009. She was trained as an economist and has worked in international finance and emerging markets. She also serves as honorary patron of the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI). Queen Máxima has valuable knowledge and experience on financial inclusion with international influence and special contribution to the effort of UN in promoting and developing financial inclusion in numerous countries.
The working-visit of Queen Máxima to Vietnam contributed to enhance the friendship and cooperation relationship between Vietnam and the Netherlands as well as between the Government of Vietnam and international organization, supporting the Government of Vietnam, private enterprise sector and authorities to foster the development of financial inclusion in Vietnam. The working visit was also crucial importance in the context that Vietnam started building up and implementing financial inclusion, the essential factor that helps the cause of poverty reduction, socio-economic development and sustainable growth.
In Vietnam, inclusion financial brings practical meaning to many sectors – those are considered key priority factor of Vietnam including enhance the access the credit resources for agriculture and rural areas, SMEs, improve the living condition for poor people in rural areas, promoting the role of women in the economy, etc.
In the program of the working visit, the Queen Máxima had meetings with President, Chairperson of the National Assembly, Leader of Government, the SBV Governor and Ministers, who are relevant to financial inclusion.
At the meetings, the Queen emphasized the important role and necessity of building up a national strategy on financial inclusion and elements that help the successful implementation including: Identify the vision and target of inclusion financial; Learn the international experience of the success implementation of financial inclusion from other countries; Establish the strong cooperation with the participation of relevant ministries to implement effectively and achieve the set target; Mobilize the international and internal resources to implement the financial inclusion. At the meetings, the leaders of Vietnam highly appreciated valuable advice and recommendations of the Queen and that facilitates the SBV in the progress of building up and implementing financial inclusion in the coming time.
The Queen at the joint press meeting on financial inclusion
There was also a “Roundtable Discussion on Strategic Framework for financial inclusion in Vietnam” within the program of the Queen of the Netherlands in Vietnam on June 1, 2017. The Roundtable Discussion focused on the substances of building up financial inclusion strategy in Vietnam, in which, the attenders discussed on the access and methods for establishment and implementation, including identifying the vision, target and pillars, mobilizing and allocating the resources and establishing mechanism of efficient coordination between the relevant sides, etc. Additionally, experts and attenders from Vietnam also discussed on the challenges during the formulation and implementation the National Strategic Framework in order to find out the proper solutions.
At the press conference to inform the results of the entire working-visit to Vietnam, the Queen Máxima underlined several practical issues importance of financial inclusion in Vietnam for the aim of fostering the economic development, thereby encouraging the formulation of the National Strategic Framework on financial inclusion and emphasizing several factors that support the successful implementation of the Strategy.
The SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong affirmed that the SBV, as the agency assigned by the Prime Minister to take a lead in financial inclusion acceleration in Vietnam, will cooperate with relevant ministries to formulate the National Strategic Framework on financial inclusion to create the national regime of direction and cooperation, to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources to build up and implement the National Strategic Framework. Concurrently, the SBV will continue to participate in international forums and programs, promote cooperation on financial inclusion to mobilize and utilize the technical and financial resources to implement the financial inclusion successfully in Vietnam.
Thoa Le