On May 11, 2022, on the side of the second ASEAN - US Special Summit held in the United States, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong, Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), had a working session with Ms. Stephanie von Friedeburg, first Senior Vice President of the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
At the meeting, SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong expressed her pleasure to see Ms. Stephanie von Friedeburg in person again after more than 2 years since Ms. Friedeburg’s working visit to Vietnam at the end of 2019. The SBV Governor hoped that Ms. Friedeburg always has an affection for Vietnam, and would continue to contribute to deepening the long-term cooperation relationship between the IFC and the Government of Vietnam.
On the IFC's side, Ms. Friedeburg congratulated the Government of Vietnam on the impressive achievements in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. She also spoke highly of the outcomes from the cooperation between the two sides in areas such as sustainable development, climate change responses, etc. The IFC recognizes the great efforts by the SBV to promote the cooperation, and had high evaluation for the SBV’s proactive and flexible management of the monetary policy, thereby maintaining the stability of the money and the foreign exchange markets, and controlling the inflation within the set target.
The SBV Governor highly appreciated the IFC's support to Vietnam over the past years, which is most clearly reflected through the fact that Vietnam has been one of the eight biggest beneficiary countries of the IFC’s investment, with a portfolio of about 2.7 billion US dollars as of December 2021. 2021 also marked the 5th year in a row that the IFC’s investment in Vietnam had reached over 1 billion USD. The IFC's investments have been fully aligned with the development policy of Vietnam, and have focused on the priority areas identified by the Government’s appeal for investment such as finance and banking, energy, agriculture, manufacturing industries and the private sector. For the banking sector, the IFC has always been a major investor, a companion and a significant contributor to the development of the whole system through its practical and effective activities. The SBV Governor also thanked for the valuable technical support of the IFC to Vietnam in the recent years, such as the project on enhancing women’s leadership in the banking industry; the organization of various seminars to share experience and lessons on restructuring the banking systems and dealing with bad debts; supporting the development of the Country Assessment Report in the IFC's Sustainable Banking and Finance Network. Particularly, SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong also expressed her deep gratitude to the IFC for having accompanied the SBV in the process of implementing the sustainable banking initiatives, typically the development of the Action Plan on Developing Green Banks and Green Credit, as well as the sets of standards for credit granting on the basis of environmental impact assessments and analyses.
In response, the IFC first Senior Vice President believed that, as one of the founding members of the Sustainable Banking Network (SBN), Vietnam would have many opportunities to achieve more significant achievements. Ms. Friedeburg affirmed that the IFC is committed to cooperating closely with the SBV in the areas of the IFC’s interest, such as SME development, especially women-owned SMEs; green and sustainable growth; capital market development; supply chain financing and SME funding; digital transformation in the banking sector,...
At the end of the working session, the two sides affirmed that they would continue to develop a good cooperative relationship, maintain regular policy dialogues in order to share views on any arising issues, and pledged to further maintain the close partnership in the future.
SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong meets IFC first Senior Vice President of IFC.
In addition, on the side of the second ASEAN - US Special Summit, SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong and Ms. Stephanie von Friedeburg, IFC first Senior Vice President signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the IFC’s support to the development of a legal framework on environmental and social standards in investment activities and credit granting of Vietnamese credit institutions, in the presence of H.E. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.
The MoU will be implemented from now to the end of 2026, with the aim to promote sustainable development of the financial industry and direct the banking operations towards sustainable development goals, contributing to the realization of Vietnam’s commitments for greenhouse gas emission (GHG) reduction and mitigating the climate change impacts made at COP26.
The cooperative activities recorded in the MoU between the SBV and the IFC are in line with a national priority of Vietnam, which is promoting the development of a green and sustainable banking industry. Over the recent years, the SBV has made remarkable achievements in directing the banking industry's operations towards sustainable development goals, contributing to the implementation of the national green growth strategy and the realization of the climate commitments. During Vietnam’s 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship, the SBV made a recommendation to the Governors of the ASEAN Central Banks for an ASEAN Initiative on Sustainable Banking Principles, which had been adopted in March 2021 at the ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting. The initiative has been seen as a step forward in promoting sustainable finance from a banking perspective, helping to guide the ASEAN policy and reflecting the commitments of the ASEAN central banks to promoting sustainable banking in the ASEAN region.
Within the framework of the signed MoU, the IFC, together with the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), would continue to cooperate with the SBV to improve the performance and the greening process of the finance and banking systems, and to promote sustainable financial development.
LK