Between April 3-6, 2018, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) led the SBV delegation to attend the ASEAN Central Bank Governors’ Meeting (ACGM), ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Joint Meeting (AFMGM) and a series of related events, which were organized in Singapore. This is the most important annual forum for ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors to discuss about polices and orientations for the regional banking and finance integration.
Within the framework of this meeting, the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors exchanged their views about cooperation priorities in the three pillars, as follows: (i) Maintaining ASEAN’s economic growth in parallel with the enhancement of regional integration; (ii) Ensuring economic stability and strengthening the resilience of the economies; and (iii) Enhancing ASEAN creativity and financial inclusion.
About the macro-economic situation, the Meeting acknowledged the ASEAN’s strong economic growth of 5.2% in 2017, while expressing their positive views about the prospects of international and regional economic growth in 2018 on the basis of global economic recovery, expanding trade and growing investment in infrastructure development.
About financial integration in the region, the ASEAN Central Bank Governors acknowledged the initiatives under the ASEAN Financial Cooperation Framework which are implemented by the Working Groups and have achieved many encouraging results in accordance with the ASEAN Community Vision 2025. The Governors highly appreciated the completion of the toolkits for managing outputs, including the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the Risk Management Template (RMT). Thanks for these effective tools, the Central Bank Governors believed that the ASEAN members would be able to better manage the process of implementing the cooperation initiatives and attain their objectives as set in the Strategic Action Plans 2016-2025 for ASEAN Financial Integration.
With the theme of “Resilient and Innovative ASEAN” chosen by the host country, the Central Bank Governors exchanged their views about arising issues like financial technologies, measures of ensuring network security, etc. The ASEAN Central Banks and Finance Ministries committed to coordinating closely in information and experience sharing in pursuing the best solutions for the ASEAN development and prosperity in the context of the Industrial Revolution 4.0.
Photo of ACGM: ASEAN Central Bank Governors’ Meeting
The Meeting also recognized the results of ASEAN+3 financial cooperation progress, particularly the effective operations of the ASEAN+3 Macro Economic Research Office (AMRO) regarding the monitoring of macro-economic situations and financial stability in the region, as well as the process of amending and supplementing a number of legal substances in the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) in order to enhance more effective coordination mechanism of CMIM.
On the sides of the Meetings, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong received the delegation from the US Department of the Treasury and participated in the dialogue between the ASEAN Central Bank Governors and the CEOs of the ASEAN financial corporations, the discussion between the ASEAN Central Bank Governors and Finance Ministers with the EU-ASEAN Business Council. At the meetings, the parties discussed issues related to cyber security, digital finance, trade facilitation, infrastructure and finance improvements.
A series of meetings and side events were wrapped up with new initiatives to promote cooperation, financial and banking integration in the region and to fulfill the goals of the ASEAN Community Vision 2025.
Le Hang