On October 30, 2020 in Hanoi, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had a meeting with Mrs. Carolyn Turk - World Bank (WB) Country Director for Vietnam. Welcoming the WB's Mission, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong thanked and expressed high appreciation for the cooperation of the WB and the WB Country Office in Vietnam over the years in supporting the formulation of strategies and policies for Vietnam’s socio-economic development in general as well as the banking and finance sector development in particular.
With Mrs. Carolyn Turk's rich management experience and expertise obtained from multiple positions in the past in different countries around the world, the SBV Deputy Governor believed that the new WB Country Director would have a successful 3-year term in Vietnam, and would also help to tighten the good ties between the WB and Vietnam in general as well as with the SBV in particular. Beside the financial assistance, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong also thanked the WB for its technical assistance and policy advice in many operational areas of both the Central Bank and the credit institutions (CIs), as well as for the Bank's support to the key strategic policies of the Government of Vietnam, such as the National Financial Inclusion Strategy.
Mrs. Carolyn Turk made high evaluation of the successes of the Government of Vietnam and the SBV in maintaining the stability of the macro-economy and developing the economy over the past time. In particular, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government and the relevant ministries, including the SBV, have promptly come up with effective measures and solutions to help the people and businesses to overcome their difficulties with quite positive results. In the coming time, the WB is commited to further accompanying and supporting the Government and the SBV in various areas, in order to overcome the difficulties caused by COVID and to achieve many more important progress.
Sharing more about the SBV's management measures, Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said that in recent years, the SBV has put a lot of efforts in operating the monetary policy. During the operations, the Deputy Governor affirmed that the SBV has always focused on the target of maintaining the macroeconomic stability, and never aims to create a competitive advantage for Vietnamese goods when implementing the instruments related to the monetary policy, the interest rates, the exchange rates or credit. In addition to operating the monetary policy of the central bank, the SBV also performs the functions of banking management. During the recent time, the SBV has made great efforts to implement 2 phases of restructuring the credit institutions. In the coming time, the SBV would continue to request the whole system and each CI to conduct regular and continuous restructuring. Along with that, the SBV has also come up with several solutions to support the CIs' responses to the impacts of COVID on the banking operations to ensure the safety of the system.
The SBV Deputy Governor welcomed the WB's initiative to support countries' fights against COVID-19. Although at present, Vietnam has successfully contained the spread of the Coronavirus, with the global situation still going on very complicatedly and unpredictably, the pandemic could still affect the abilities to recover of the domestic economy.
SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong takes a photo with the WB Mission
Expressing gratitude for the WB's assistance to the formulation of the National Financial Inclusion Strategy, the SBV Deputy Governor emphasized that this is an crucial strategy of national importance that requires synchronous implementation by multiple ministries and agencies at all levels from the central Government, the ministries to the local authorities. Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong hoped that the WB would continue to join hands with the Vietnamese stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of the Strategy.
In the upcoming time, the SBV's priorities are on reviewing, evaluating and amending several important Laws, such as the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam, the Law on Credit Institutions, the Law on Deposit Insurance, etc., as well as on proposing and formulating a new Law on Payment, amending a number of relevant Circulars and Decisions, etc.. Therefore, the SBV would need the WB’s support in terms of providing resources, consultancy, expertise, international experience and best practices. In addition, the SBV would also need more support from the World Bank in other areas, such as of payment, risk-based inspection and supervision, anti-money laundering, capacity-building for the SBV staff, etc.
VA