Virtual meeting of Advisory Committee of IMF Capacity Development Office in Thailand

Also attending this virtual meeting, there were representatives of (i) the IMF: CDOT, Asia-Pacific Department, IMF Institute for Capacity Development, Fiscal Affairs Department, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, Statistics Department; IMF training centers in the region, IMF country representative offices; (ii) Countries sponsoring CDOT's activities: Japan, Thailand; (iii) Countries receiving support from CDOT: Vietnam, Lao PDR, Cambodia and Myanmar.

At the virtual meeting, representatives from all countries made high evaluation for the IMF and the Governments of Japan and Thailand for supporting the operations of the CDOT, as well as various technical assistance and training projects for countries in the region. The CDOT's support to countries in the region in the areas of macro-economy, monetary policies, banking, finance, fiscal affairs, statistics,... are highly treasured by the recipient countries: the involved experts with in-depth knowledge, highly applicable outcomes, timely support for analysis, forecasting and policy-making in the recipient countries in the recent period. Especially in the context of countries heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, the support/online courses of the CDOT in particular and of the IMF in general on policy responses to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic have provided effective assistance to the countries in forecasting, planning and operating the monetary, banking and financial policies.

At the meeting, the representatives of Vietnam and other recipient countries of the CDOT also exchanged and proposed some initiatives for the CDOT support in the future. With the theme/goal of this year's meeting, which is Assisting countries in assessing/monitoring the impacts and managing the macro-economy, finance and banking in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mrs. Hoang Thi Phuong Hanh - Deputy General Director of the SBV International Cooperation Department, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation - informed the meeting about Vietnam's recent economic situations, as well as Government of Vietnam's comprehensive policy package to cope with the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic and support the economic recovery. In addition, the Deputy General Director also proposed to the IMF on Vietnam's needs for support in the near future, focusing on: (i) the technical assistance currently being implemented by the CDOT in Vietnam in terms of: statistics of external areas; building an analytical model and forecasting policies; State budget management; Debt management; State Treasury reform; Tax Administration; macroeconomic statistics; enhanced General Data Dissemination System (e-GDDS); setting up accounts by institutional areas,...; (ii) a number of support packages to proactively cope with and mitigate the impacts of Covid-19, such as: analyzing and assessing the impacts of Covid-19 on the macroeconomic situation related to the financial and fiscal stability; models, softwares for analyzing, assessing and forecasting financial system risks; using banking network analytic techniques in systematic risk assessment; payment and digital banking, etc.

The Meeting of the CDOT was a forum for the participants to discuss, share views, assessments and experience on the implementation, development and utilization of the CDOT technical assistance, as well as their needs in the future. Thereby, the CDOT will be able to match with the plans, the supporting capabilities of different parties, thereby helping to strengthen the capacity of the countries, heading towards a region of stable and sustainable financial development.

VA