On October 27, 2021, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Governor Nguyen Thi Hong had a meeting with Mr. Jaya Ratnam, Ambassador of the Republic of Singapore to Vietnam. Also attending the meeting were representatives from the SBV entities, including the International Cooperation Department, the Payment Department, the Banking Supervision Agency, and the SBV Office.
Governor Nguyen Thi Hong meets Ambassador of the Republic of Singapore to Vietnam Jaya Ratnam.
At the meeting, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong welcomed the working visit of Ambassador Ratnam and his delegation to the SBV. It was the first visit of the Singaporean Ambassador to the SBV after the start of his office term in March, 2021. Governor Nguyen Thi Hong expressed her beliefs that the Ambassador would have a successful term in Vietnam and would continue to further enhance the diplomatic partnership between Vietnam and Singapore.
The SBV Governor also shared that, recently, both Vietnam and Singapore had been seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the Delta variant with a high transmission rate. Under that situation, the SBV had implemented several solutions to address the difficulties faced by the enterprises and the citizens, such as restructuring the debt service schedules, remaining the debt classifications, waiving and reducing banking fees and interest, meanwhile still holding fast to the goals of controlling the inflation, maintaining the macro-economic and the forex market stability.
Overview of the meeting.
Talking about the proposed joint project to promote the two-way payment connection using compatible QR codes between Vietnam and Singapore, the SBV Governor confirmed that this proposal by the Singaporean side is consistent with the cooperation orientations previously agreed by the two central banks. This would be a new opportunity for both sides to work together to promote the implementation of payment connection through QR codes, contributing to enhancing cashless payments, promoting financial integration and digital transformation of each economy, as well as to the sustainable development of the ASEAN region.
The SBV Governor hoped that, in the near future the two central banks would continue to enhance the bilateral cooperation through sharing experiences in various areas, such as sustainable finance, green growth with action programs in green banking and green credit, financial technology applied to the provision of banking services, as requested in Vietnam's National Strategy on Financial Inclusion, digital transformation in the banking industry, etc.
Governor Nguyen Thi Hong presents a souvenir to Singaporean Ambassador Jaya Ratnam.
For his part, Ambassador Jaya Ratnam re-affirmed the close and strong cooperation relationship between Vietnam and Singapore, which had been built on the foundation of mutual trust and support. The SBV and the Ministry of Finance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have also built up a close partnership, contributing to promoting the bilateral trade and investments between the two countries. The Ambassador hoped that the two sides would continue to strengthen the cooperation relationship, heading toward the 2023 milestone, when Vietnam and Singapore celebrate 50 years of diplomatic relations and 10 years of strategic partnership. The Singaporean Ambassador wished to have more opportunities to enhance the cooperation with the SBV, especially in the fields of payment and sustainable finance, sharing experience as well as learning from each other, taking the good bilateral relationship between the two countries to a new height.
LK