On April 14, 2025, Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) had a meeting with Mr. Scott Morris, Vice President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong speaks at the meeting
At the meeting, SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong welcomed Mr. Scott Morris to visit and work with the SBV, and expressed her high acknowledgement of the firm, effective and long-term cooperation between Vietnam and the ADB over the past three decades plus. The Governor emphasized that the ADB is an important development partner, always supporting Vietnam in the key sectors, including infrastructure development, energy, education, healthcare, urban development, green growth, climate change responses, and sustainable development.
Mr. Scott Morris, Vice President of the ADB, speaks at the meeting
The two sides discussed about the strategic orientations for the cooperation, including promoting the ADB's sovereign loans to Vietnam. Governor Hong highly commended the ADB for having actively engaged with the relevant Government agencies to conclude Loan Agreement for the Climate Resilient Inclusive Infrastructure for Ethnic Minorities Project II (CRIEM II), which is planned to be signed on April 16, 2025. In addition, the Governor requested the ADB to further improve the procedures, be more flexible in the financial mechanisms, and cut down on its lending costs to improve the capital use efficiency.
At the meeting, Governor Hong also shared that the Government of Vietnam has been implementing multiple important tasks to reform and re-organize the administrative apparatus to be more streamlined, effective and efficient. In addition, the Government is also putting efforts into improving the quality of the human resources, and actively removing any institutional obstacles and reforming the administrative procedures. To achieve the established economic development goals, in addition to financial resources, innovations and digital transformation, the role of international development institutions, including ADB, is extremely important to support Vietnam in mobilizing external financial resources for the economic development.
An overview of the meeting
Regarding the ODA loan projects in general, Governor Hong informed that the Government has been actively reviewing and improving the institutional and legal frameworks to enhance the loan capital use efficiency. Vietnam hoped that the ADB would provide loans with more preferential interest rates, or combining financing modalities and the technical assistance during the preparation and implementation of projects, in order to improve the effectiveness of the cooperation between the two sides.
As an international financial institution with a lot of capabilities and experience in private sector development, the ADB's readiness and efforts to mobilize finance to invest in the private sector in Vietnam over the past years are highly acknowledged by the SBV, thereby supporting and contributing to promoting the development of the private sector to become a pillar of the economy.
SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong takes a photo with Mr. Scott Morris and the ADB’s mission
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Scott Morris spoke highly of Vietnam's efforts in the institutional reform and the macroeconomic management results, and affirmed that the ADB would continue to support the Government's plans for developing the priority sectors, including transport, energy, digital transformation, and green growth. He emphasized that Vietnam has been one of the leading countries in sustainable development in the region, and the ADB was committed to being a long-term reliable partner to Vietnam.
Towards the end of the meeting, the two sides agreed to continue the regular policy dialogues, strengthen the technical coordination, and build strategic cooperation programs, contributing to realizing Vietnam's socio-economic development goals in the coming time.
HY