On November 28th, 2018 in Hanoi, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) organized the Workshop titled “Boosting payment operations with the Middle East & African markets”, which was chaired by SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong.
Overview of the Workshop
Also attending the workshop were representatives from the relevant ministries and agencies, representatives of several commercial banks and enterprises having business activities and interest in the Middle East & African markets.
The Workshop was held under the framework of the Project on Developing the relations between Vietnam and the Middle East & African countries in the period of 2016 - 2025 approved by the Prime Minister, which assigns the SBV a number of specific tasks, including: Establishment of an interdisciplinary think tank to recommend solutions to facilitate the money transfers between Vietnamese enterprises and Middle East & African countries; Continuing to sign bilateral cooperation agreements and encouraging Vietnamese commercial banks to establish agency relationships with the commercial banks in African countries.
According to the report, the Middle East & African markets - a land with abundant natural resources and a vast market with 70 countries and a total population of over 1.6 billion people - is a highly potential market for the world in general and for Vietnam in particular. Vietnam and the Middle East & Africa have many complementary advantages for mutual development. Vietnam has established diplomatic relations with 68 out of the 70 countries in this region, and the two-way trade volume between Vietnam and the whole region reached nearly USD 19 billion in 2017. However, with the geographic distances and differences in the levels of socio-economic development and business practices, the results of the cooperative activities between the two sides have not reached the potential as well as the desires of both sides.
SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong delivers the opening remarks
In her opening remarks, SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong emphasized that recognizing the opportunities as well as the challenges, the Government and the ministries/agencies in Vietnam have paid much attention to the development of cooperative relations, promoting and facilitating and conducting solutions to remove the difficulties for Vietnamese enterprises and investors to do business in these markets. And the Project on Developing the relations between Vietnam and the Middle East & African countries is a concrete evidence.
The SBV Deputy Governor stated that in the banking sector, the difficulties in payment transactions with the Middle East & African markets are still regarded as a barrier to the development of the bilateral trade and investment relations. Implementing the tasks assigned by the Prime Minister in the above-mentioned Project, as a management agency in the monetary and banking sector, the SBV has actively explored and exploited the bilateral and multilateral cooperation channels, participated in the meetings and activities of the Joint Committees, the Inter-governmental Committees between Vietnam and the Middle East & African countries, thereby strengthening the connectivity and collaboration with the central banks and the monetary & banking authorities of these countries.
Through the banks’ reports, although the difficulties in payment transactions via banks with this market have been initially identified, they are still incomplete and incomprehensive for the SBV to evaluate accurately and to propose and implement effective solutions. Therefore, the Deputy Governor hoped that the participants representing the ministries, agencies and the banks, the enterprises to actively and openly discuss and exchange practical information on the difficulties and the constraints, as well as the experiences working with partners in the Middle East & African markets.
"The SBV encourages Vietnamese commercial banks to actively explore and seek cooperation and business opportunities in the Middle East and Africa, during which paying particular attention to the implementation of payment intermediary functions for Vietnamese businesses and investors with this market,” said the Deputy Governor.
In addition, the SBV is urgently implementing measures to enhance the reporting and information on payment activities and money transfers with the Middle East & African markets via the banking system of Vietnam.
Participants contributes their ideas at the Workshop
At the Workshop, the participants discussed the following topics: Situation, advantages and difficulties of cooperation between Vietnam and the Middle East & African countries; Assessment on the current situation and demand for import and export of goods between Vietnam and the African markets; Advantages, difficulties and investment needs of Vietnamese enterprises in the African markets; Overview of the payment situation with the African markets; Experiences of Viettel Global on investment activities in the Middle East & African markets, demand, experience of remittance services of Viettel Global; Hapro's payment experiences in the Middle East & African markets; Actual payment transactions, money transfers with the Middle East & African markets through Vietnamese commercial banks system...
Based on the information and recommendations at the Workshop, the SBV will undertake further research on the implementation of the tasks assigned in the Project on Developing the relations between Vietnam and the Middle East & African countries in the period of 2016-2025 in particular, and the SBV’s support activities to promote the payment operations with this market in general in the coming time.
VA