Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong meets Ambassador of Israel to Vietnam

At the meeting, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong welcomed Mr. Nadav Eshcar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Vietnam and Lao PDR, and other officers of the Israeli Embassy, to visit and work with the SBV. The Deputy Governor commented that over the past time, the relations between the two countries have developed very well in many areas from politics to economy, security and defense. Israel has now become a reliable partner of Vietnam in the Middle East. The SBV Deputy Governor mentioned that Vietnam and Israel are now actively engaged in the negotiations for a Vietnam - Israel Free Trade Agreement (VIFTA). In the context that the economic relationship between the two countries still has a lot of potential for development, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong believed that the signing and implementation of the VIFTA will enhance strongly the bilateral trade relations to meet the potentials.

Currently, the commercial banks in Vietnam and Israel are working effectively with each other on an agency banking relation, contributing to facilitating trade and investment activities between the two countries. In 2019, the turnover of bilateral payments through this agency banking system reached about 197 million USD, accounting for 17% of the two-way trade turnover (about 1.15 billion USD). Therefore, there is still a lot of potential for cooperation between the commercial banking systems of the two countries.

Overview of the meeting

In particular, Israel is a country that has made a lot of great achievements in the application of technology in all aspects of life, as well as in governance and administration. In the context of the emerging and irreversible trend of Fintech, the SBV Deputy Governor hoped that the Embassy could become a bridge to enhance the cooperation and sharing between the two central banks - the two monetary management agencies - on areas related to the management of Fintech operations.

On behalf of the SBV, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong thanked the Ambassador and the Embassy of Israel for their interest, support and coordination with the SBV in successfully organizing the Seminar on Fintech themed "Data Security, Cyber Security and Automation in the Financial Sector” in 2019. The participating units from the SBV made very high evaluation for the contents and the arrangements prepared by the Embassy of Israel for this Seminar.

Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong taking a photo with Mr. Nadav Eshcar, Ambassador of Israel to Vietnam and Lao PDR

For his part, Mr. Nadav Eshcar, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the State of Israel to Vietnam and Lao PDR, thanked Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong for taking the time to meet his mission. He made high evaluation the bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the economic areas in general and in the financial and banking sector in particular. Mr. Nadav Eshcar affirmed that both sides still have a lot of potentials for cooperation and development, and can promote more strongly the exchanges between the two economies.

The Israeli Ambassador also emphasized that Israel always attaches great importance to the cooperative relations with Vietnam. It can be seen that the bilateral trade has been progressing positively, especially in the past few years when Vietnam has been emerging as a gateway for ASEAN. In 2020, although the Covid-19 pandemic has seriously damaged global trade, the import-export turnover between Vietnam and Israel during the first 6 months still reached 791 million USD. Therefore, Ambassador Nadav Eshcar proposed that in the coming time, the Bank of Israel and the SBV should further accelerate the exchanges of delegations to share more experience and to promote the bilateral cooperation in the banking sector.

VA