On February 28, at the headquarters of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), Governor Nguyen Thi Hong had a meeting with Mr. Iain Frew, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Vietnam.
Also attending the meeting, on the SBV’s side, there were leaders of the International Cooperation Department, the Monetary Policy Department, the Department of Credit for Economic Sectors, the Payment Department and the Banking Supervision Agency. On the side of the British Embassy in Vietnam, there was Mr. Ronald Bohlander, Climate Counselor; and Ms. Ruth Turner, Political and Development Counselor.
Congratulating Mr. Iain Frew on his new appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to Vietnam, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong expressed her beliefs that Ambassador Frew would contribute significantly to the development of the cooperation relations between Vietnam and the UK.
The SBV Governor spoke highly of the role of the foreign banks in Vietnam, including the large banks from the UK, such as Standard Chartered Bank, in the development of Vietnam’s banking system. She also complimented the proactiveness and robustness of the foreign banks in the policy dialogues with Vietnamese competent authorities.
Governor Nguyen Thi Hong also took the opportunity to express her sincere thanks to the UK Government for having supported the announcement of the Political Declaration on establishing the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) between the G7 countries and Vietnam in late 2022. The SBV Governor made high appreciation for the commitments by the British firms and companies to mobilizing resources in support of the implementation of Vietnam’s “net-zero” target by 2050. The SBV Governor proposed that the British Embassy to Vietnam and the British financial institutions continue to promote their role in connecting Vietnam with the international concessional credit resources and in developing the financial instruments in order to provide more resources for the green transformation of Vietnam’s economy.
For his part, the British Ambassador to Vietnam expressed his positive views about the good bilateral relations between the two countries in various areas. According to the Ambassador, the partnership between the two countries’ finance and banking sectors still has a lot of space for development, and it could continue to achieve more positive results in the coming time.
The representatives from both sides
Sharing about the common interests in the current context, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong and Ambassador Iain Frew agreed to facilitate and strengthen further the cooperation activities in the coming time, especially in the new areas that may have strong impacts on the finance and banking sector such as the digital transformation, fintech, and anti-money laundering.
Ambassador Iain Frew also asserted that the UK would continue to support and be a companion to Vietnam by seeking and providing practical and necessary assistance for Vietnam to implement its commitments made at COP26, transitioning towards a green and sustainable economy.
Le Hang