On February 15th, 2019 at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the SBV organized a Ceremony to award the Commemorative Medal for Contributions to the Development of Vietnam’s Banking Sector to Mr. Jonathan C. Dunn - Chief Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Vietnam. SBV Governor Le Minh Hung attended the ceremony and presented the Medal to Mr. Dunn.\nAlso
Attending the meeting were representatives of SBV’s Departments: the International Cooperation Department, the Monetary Policy Department, the Monetary Forecasting Statistics Department, the Foreign Exchange Management Department, the Monetary and Financial Stabilization Department, the Banking Supervision Agency, the Department of Legal Affairs, the SBV Office, the Department of Emulation and Reward, and Communication Department.
At the meeting, Governor Le Minh Hung congratulated Mr. Jonathan on being appointed to the new position as Deputy Director of the IMF’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (OAP) in Japan, to support Japan as the host country of the G20 Summit in 2019. This reflects the high evaluation and acknowledgement of the IMF’s Board of Directors for Mr. Dunn’s work and achievements.
The SBV Governor thanked the IMF and Mr. Jonathan C. Dunn personally for having made great efforts during his working term in Vietnam (from July 2015 to February 2019) to contribute by giving numerous policy advice and recommendations to the Government of Vietnam (GoV), in line with the specific circumstances and economic conditions in Vietnam in each period.
Overview of the meeting
Mr. Jonathan has been acting as an important bridge between the IMF and the relevant ministries, agencies of Vietnam, ensuring timely, accurate and comprehensive information; developing regular and close dialogues, consultations and policy exchanges with the ministries and agencies, especially between the IMF and the SBV. The SBV Governor stressed the extremely valuable contributions of Mr. Dunn in helping tighten the high-level relations between the IMF leaders and the GoV leaders, which has been reflected through the official visits of the IMF’s General Director Christine Lagarde to Vietnam in 2016 and 2017, and many regular meetings and working sessions between the GoV leaders and the IMF leaders abroad and on the sideline of the international conferences and fora.
Besides, in mobilizing and supporting Vietnam in receiving the IMF’s resources, the SBV Governor also stated that the policy recommendations provided by the IMF and the IMF officers in Vietnam to the GoV as well as the SBV have helped a lot in the governance, policy planning and implementation of Vietnam as well as the SBV.
The SBV Governor believed in his new position, Mr. Dunn would continue to strengthen the role of the IMF in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the cooperation between Vietnam and the IMF. The Governor also wished that Mr. Dunn would continue to be a friend of Vietnam in general and the SBV in particular, further strengthening the cooperation activities in the region and with Vietnam in the areas of policy dialogue, advisory service and support for capacity enhancement in the monetary and banking fields and the economic statistics, as reflected in the message mentioned by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the meeting on February 13th.
In thanking for the cooperation and support of the GoV and the SBV in the past years, Mr. Jonathan C.Dunn expressed that he had had the privilege and honor to work in Vietnam over the recent years. Mr. Dunn stated that he and his colleagues at the IMF Vietnam Resident Office have always been working with the spirit of promoting the cooperation and facilitating the connection between the IMF and the GoV, as well as between the IMF and the SBV. Mr.Dunn ackowledged that during his working term in Vietnam, the GoV has had many positive changes in its orientations and visions of an extremely open future.
According to Mr. Dunn, if Vietnam continues to implement the current policies and reforms, Vietnam will develop and go further. "What I think can improve in Vietnam to become an Industry 4.0 country is that the quality of secondary and tertiary education needs to be improved, thereby helping Vietnam to overcome the middle-income trap,” he said.
Mr. Jonathan C. Dunn affirmed that in his new position, he will certainly continue to support and assist Vietnam in general and the SBV in particular.
SBV Governor Le Minh Hung takes a photo with Mr. Jonathan C. Dunn - Chief Representative of the IMF in Vietnam
Governor Le Minh Hung emphasized that the Commemorative Medal was a recognition and high evaluation of the State Bank of Vietnam for the great contributions of Mr. Jonathan C. Dunn personally to the development of Vietnam’s Banking sector, as well as to the development, enhancement and promotion of the good relations between the SBV and the IMF.
VA