Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong attends virtual 19th Meeting of SEACEN Executive Committee

The theme of the High-Level Webinar on the side of this year's EXCO Meeting is “Post-pandemic: a New Normal State”. The theme was selected based on the public health emergencies caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, making the global economy fall into the most serious recession in the recent decades. The participants in the Webinar agreed that the pandemic has changed the structure of the global trade, the economies, the businesses and the financial sector. In order to mitigate the economic impacts and maintain financial stability, a lot of governments and central banks have had to implement a series of urgent and mostly unprecedented measures. Meanwhile, the pandemic has forced countries to enhance the application of the digital technologies, especially in the banking and payment areas. At the Webinar, the Central Banks’ Deputy Governors focused on discussing and sharing their perspectives on issues of common interest, such as the central banks' role during Covid-19, the central banks' contributions to the economic and social recovery, as well as the challenges faced by the central banks in pursuing the goals of macroeconomic stability and financial stability in the short and medium-term, etc.

SBV delegates attending the Meeting

At the 19th Meeting of SEACEN EXCO, the Deputy Governors approved the expected outcomes of the Strategic Plan of SEACEN for the 2020-2022 period, which includes core activities in the medium-term to respond to the Covid-19 crisis. In addition, the Meeting also agreed in principle the proposals by SEACEN related to the training and research programs, the schedules for conferences and seminars, the budget plan and some other administrative matters for 2021, in order to be submitted to the SEACEN Board of Governors for approval. Speaking at the Meeting, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong emphasized that the Covid-19 pandemic has caused a series of unforeseen challenges and delayed many important events. Still facing a lot of difficulties, but the countries in the region have been making great efforts to maintain close cooperation with one another to ensure the successful operations of SEACEN's research and training activities. The SBV welcomed SEACEN's online training activities and suggested SEACEN continue to strengthen its facilities and curricula, promote the efficiency of online training towards more application of the digital technologies in training activities. In the field of research, the SBV recommended that SEACEN consider and study more about the matters related to digital transformation in the banking sector, including the central banks' digital currencies. Regarding the budget, the SBV suggested that SEACEN balance the finances and utilize the budget in the most reasonable and effective way in response to this global Covid-19 pandemic.

Delegates speak at the Meeting

As a SEACEN member since 2006, the SBV has conducted policy exchanges with other SEACEN’s members, and enhanced its staff capacity by sending them to the short-term courses held abroad and in Vietnam on macroeconomic management and monetary policy, financial stability and inspection/supervision, payment systems, leadership and human resource management; SEACEN research projects with practical topics for the central banks such as the Project on capital flow management for small and open economies. Especially in the coming time, SEACEN will focus on topics such as how to respond to the Covid-19 shock, the impacts of Covid-19 on the financial markets in SEACEN member economies, Big Data application in the monetary policy, and financial stability for SEACEN member economies, etc.

VA