On March 25, 2021, a Delegation from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) attended the Virtual Meeting of the ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies (AFCDM+3), an event in the framework of the ASEAN and ASEAN+3 Summits taking place from March 25-30, 2021. Attending the Meeting there were Deputy Finance Ministers, Deputy Governors of the Central Banks from the ASEAN+3 countries, representatives from the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
At the Meeting, the Deputy Governors and Deputy Finance Ministers discussed the following topics: (i) the global and regional macroeconomic situation and prospects; the situation and the response measures to the COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) the process of cooperation under the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM); (iii) the performance of AMRO; (iv) the implementation of the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI); and (v) strategic orientations, as well as new initiatives under the ASEAN+3 Finance Cooperation Process.
At the session on regional and world economic developments, the ASEAN Secretariat gave a presentation on the state of the ASEAN region. In particular, the speech emphasized that the COVID-19 pandemic had caused many negative impacts on the global and regional economic and trade activities in 2020, shutting down many services and production activities, disrupting supply chains and affecting the lives of millions of people. Although in recent months, the manufacturing and service sectors have seen significant improvements thanks to the support policies initiated by the governments, other economic sectors, such as retail industry, have been recovering poorly and unemployment rates in many countries still remain high under the complicated effects of the pandemic.
The representative from AMRO spoke highly of the efforts of the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministries and the Central Banks in managing the fiscal policy and the monetary policy in response to the pandemic. According to AMRO’s forecast, the ASEAN+3 countries will achieve an average growth rate of 6.9% (6% for the ASEAN region) in 2021, with the main risks still coming from possible disease outbreaks and the new strains of COVID-19.
At the discussion session on the topic of "The global value chains in the post-pandemic "new normal" time", AMRO assessed that the crisis caused by COVID-19 pandemic had caused great impacts on global trade and investments, disrupting the value chains and revealing many weak links. Thereby, all countries need to take a new approach at the supply chain networks. In the post-pandemic "new normal" time, all countries need to take appropriate measures to reshape the growth trajectory of the regional economies, as well as restructuring the conventional value chains, focusing more on the resilience, especially in the context that global value chains account for a large share of the international trade of the regional economies, the emergence of digital technology and the increasing risks from the protectionism trends.
The Delegates attending the virtual Meeting at different broadcast points (screenshot)
With regard to the ongoing activities, AMRO Representative and the Meeting's Co-Chair provided an update on the progress, and consulted the Deputy Governors and Deputy Finance Ministers on: (i) the discussion progress, the roadmap for selecting the CMIM interest rates and the guiding principles on the interest rate compensation; (ii) approving the revised Guidelines for the implementation of monitoring of AMRO Member States; and (iii) approving the implementation method and deployment of the 12th CMIM test run.
Speaking at the Meeting, the SBV representative highly appreciated AMRO for the effective implementation of the macro monitoring of countries in the region, and for making appropriate recommendations for ASEAN+3 countries to address the technical issues under the CMIM Agreement, and the improvements in AMRO’s operational processes and the coordination mechanism among countries in the region. In addition, the SBV also committed to work with ASEAN+3 countries to further promote intra-regional cooperation, and the collaboration between the region and the international organizations and other partner countries in the post-pandemic time.
In the closing session, the Deputy Governors and Deputy Finance Ministers stresses the importance of strengthening the cooperation and mutual assistance in the region to help the member countries to overcome difficult times, contributing to the regional economic recovery.
VA