Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had a meeting with Ms. Philaslak Yukkasemwong, Managing Director of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) representing Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Singapore and Thailand, in Hanoi on October 2.
Attending the meeting were Mr. Somkid Boonlonlear, senior economist; Mr. Eric Sidgwick, ADB Country Director in Vietnam; representatives from SBV International Cooperation Department.
At the meeting, Ms. Philaslak Yukkasemwong sincerely thanks Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong for her warm hospitality. Highly appreciating Vietnam’s achievements in economic growth over the past years, Ms. Philaslak Yukkasemwong, on behalf of the ADB, congratulated Vietnam on its changing from a low-income country into a middle-income country. She also expressed her pleasure at Vietnam’s role in successfully organizing events and summit under the cooperation framework of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS).
Moreover, Ms. Philaslak Yukkasemwong said that ADB has been in the process of formulating development strategy towards 2030 and collecting ideas from its shareholders and member countries, including Vietnam. She emphasized that policy on graduation is one of important factors to review and formulate ADB’s strategy in the coming time. At the same time, the ADB would consider the operations of private sector in member countries in regard to the merging of ordinary loans and ADF loans.
For her part, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong warmly welcomed the ADB delegation to Vietnam and thanked Ms. Philaslak Yukkasemwong for her positive assessment of socio-economic development and macro-economic stability in Vietnam. She stated, in the recent time, Vietnam has been consistent in conducting measures of stabilizing macro-economy in collaboration with the restructuring of the economy. She said Vietnamese Government acknowledged and highly appreciated the support from international donors, including the ADB, for projects concerning with agriculture, healthcare, education, infrastructure and etc.
The SBV Governor briefed the guests of Vietnam’s encouraging results in economic growth, poverty reduction, which are factors ABD based on to assess Vietnam possibility to become eligible for graduating from ADF.
According to the ADB’s policy, Vietnam is scheduled to graduate from the ADF from January 1, 2019. However, in spite of remarkable achievements, Vietnam faces many challenges related to sustainably economic growth in context of natural disaster, diseases and extreme effects of climate changes. Therefore, the SBV Deputy Governor hoped that Ms. Philaslak Yukkasemwong would continue to raise her voice in supporting the ADB’s approval of programs and projects for Vietnam, including programs concerning with finance and banking. She said Vietnamese Government, ministries, agencies and the SBV committed to the best utilize ADB loans. She also expressed her sincere thanks to the ADB for its technical assistance and policy consultancy for Vietnam over the past time.
Le Hang