36th meeting of ASEAN Working Committee on Capital Account Liberalization (WC-CAL)

The meeting was co-chaired by Mrs. Wilhelmina C. Manalac - Assistant Governor of Monetary Stability Sector, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) and Mrs. Hoang Thi Phuong Hanh - Deputy Director General of the International Cooperation Department of the SBV, with the participation of the representatives from the central banks of ASEAN member states of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. On the Vietnamese side, there were representatives from the SBV (the Foreign Exchange Management Department, the Monetary & Financial Stabilization Department, the Monetary Forecasting & Statistics Department and the International Cooperation Department), and the Ministry of Finance.

At the meeting, the participants focused on discussing the contents related to the implementation of the plans set out in the Roadmap for Capital Account Liberalization, including: (i) Evaluation form for Capital Account Liberalization (CAL Heatmap); (ii) National Plan of Account Liberalization (Individual CAL Plan); (iii) Status of implementation of the Strategic Plan of Action (SAP), Risk Management Table (RMT) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) on financial integration and financial stability; (iv) Policy dialogue on prudential safeguards for capital account liberalization; (v) Database for policy dialogues on capital account liberalization; (vi) Research Report on Self-Assessment on Capital Account in the context of ASEAN. In addition to agreeing on a number of key issues to report to the Senior Level Committee on ASEAN Financial Integration (SLC) and the ASEAN Steering Committee on Capacity Building (SCCB), the meeting was also a forum for discussion on the emerging issue of trade tensions between the United States and China, as well as its impact on ASEAN member states…

The meeting noted the important progress of the WC-CALs in the implementation and deployment of the directions of the Governors of the central banks in ASEAN regarding the liberalization of ASEAN regional capital accounts.

The participants shared the same view that the efforts to liberalize the capital account highly depends on the characteristics and the readiness of each country, at the same time, it is necessary to ensure the right to take safe and prudent measures to maintain financial and macroeconomic stability. Above all, this was also an opportunity for the central banks in ASEAN to review the integration developments and plan their work both in depth and in breadth in the field of capital accounts, towards achieving the goal of financial integration within the framework of ASEAN Vision 2025.

VA