Between May 1-5, 2019, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) organized the 52nd Annual Meeting with the theme of "Prosperity Through Unity" in Nadi, Fiji. The Vietnamese delegation attending the Meeting was led by Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
During the Opening session, the plenary sessions, the Board of Governors’ Meeting, the business sessions and the thematic seminars, the participants agreed to continue to unite to build a sustainable and prosperous Asia Pacific. The ADB will continue to focus on supporting the member countries to implement poverty reduction, socio-economic infrastructure development, tourism services development, medical assistance, education and information technology application, private economic sector development, environmental improvement and responses to climate change... The ADB will also continue to strengthen the regional cooperation, jointly implementing the goals and orientations of the ADB's 2030 Strategy, improving policies on graduation from preferential financial resources, continuing to increase the provision of preferential support to the member countries for their socio-economic development. The ADB is committed to continuing to drastically reform its organizational structure and operational approach to promote effective resources to support the member countries towards building a sustainable and prosperous region.
In addition, the ADB will work closely with the multilateral financial institutions, the financial institutions and the private banks to enhance resources and promote efficiency in addressing the regional challenges. Especially in the plenary session with the theme of mobilizing the private sector, SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong made a significant speech announcing the policies and orientations of the Government of Vietnam on considering the private economic sector to be an important element in the socio-economic development. At the same time, the Deputy Governor also requested that the ADB provide preferential finance, technical consultancy and assistance to small and medium private enterprises in the least developed and developing countries. The SBV Deputy Governor also called on the ADB and the multilateral banks to develop a coordination mechanism among countries to share experiences in economic development and public private partnerships (PPP).
On the side of the Meeting, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong had working sessions with Mr. Ahmed M. Saeed – ADB Vice President for East Asia and the Pacific, Mr. Diwakar Gupta - ADB Vice President in charge of the private sector, Mr. Ramesh Subramaniam - ADB Director General of Southeast Asia Department (SERD), Mr. In Chang Song - ADB Executive Director. At the meetings, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong highly appreciated the ADB for adopting the 2030 Sustainable Development Strategy and hoped the ADB would work closely with Vietnam and the member countries to effectively implement this Strategy. The SBV Deputy Governor also called on the ADB to work closely with Vietnam’s government agencies to disseminate the ADB's new financial products to support the private sector development. At the same time, the Deputy Governor also expressed high appreciation for the ADB's financial and technical assistance, as well as policy consultancy provided to Vietnam and re-affirmed that the Government of Vietnam is determined to utilize these important resources effectively.
The ADB representatives spoke highly of the Government of Vietnam’s achievements during the past years in successfully maintaining the macroeconomic stability, promoting high growth, controlling inflation at a low level, including the effective implementation of the monetary policy, increasing the foreign exchange reserves, stabilizing the exchange rates, restructuring the banking system and the handling of bad debts. The ADB is committed to continuing to accompany the Government of Vietnam in supporting growth and poverty reduction. The SBV Deputy Governor and the ADB representatives agreed to work closely in the process of implementing the 2030 Strategy, and the introduction of the ADB’s new products in Vietnam. At the same time, the ADB would continue to develop the 2020-2022 Project Portfolio for Vietnam in order to facilitate Vietnam to continue to receive loans, grant aids and technical assistance from the ADB to support the socio-economic development in Vietnam.
SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong attends the 22nd meeting of the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of ASEAN+3
On the side of the ADB Annual Meeting, between May 2-4, 2019, the SBV delegation also attended a series of meetings within the framework of ASEAN+3 financial and monetary cooperation. At those events, the leaders of the Central Banks and the Ministries of Finance of ASEAN+3 countries, together with representatives from the international organizations such as the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank (ADB)... shared their views on regional and global economic situations and outlooks, as well as the challenges in the coming time. Accordingly, the ASEAN+3 region is expected to grow at a rate of 5.1% in the period of 2019-2020, down slightly from the 5.3% of 2018 due to the impacts of the trade protectionism; the regional inflation is expected to be stable at 2%, similar to that of 2018. At the same time, the leaders of the Central Banks and the Ministries of Finance of ASEAN+3 countries also discussed the Strategic Orientations for the ASEAN+3 financial process and other related issues within the framework of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM).
In the situation of the world economy still posing many potential risks, and the tendency of protectionism in some economies, the leaders of the Central Banks and the Ministries of Finance of ASEAN+3 countries emphasized the necessity of strengthening cooperation in the framework of CMIM, including the continuation of the evaluation and improvement of the CMIM framework; continuing to improve the member countries' capabilities to assess, monitor the macroeconomic factors, and supporting the CMIM implementation of AMRO; promoting activities in the framework of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI); and strengthening the ASEAN+3 financial cooperation in financing and providing insurance for natural disaster risks.
In addition, within the framework of the bilateral cooperation, the Vietnamese delegation also had a meeting with Mr. Robert Kaproth - U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury for East Asia. Both parties exchanged and shared about the operations of the monetary policy and the exchange rates, as well as Vietnam's balance of payments in 2018.
VA