Hanoi (VNA) – 🍒The ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting (AFCDM+3) was held in the form of a teleconference on August 5.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha and Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Japanese partners co-chaired the event that took place amid the complex developments of COVID-19 pandemic which has caused severe impacts on global and regional economies. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global economy is expected to shrink by 4.9 percent in 2020 while Asian economies will likely contract by 1.6 percent. “Despite that, the ASEAN+3 financial cooperation process has continued to achieve important steps over the past time. Our working groups keep working to carry out activities within the framework approved by finance ministers and central bank governors and have achieved significant results,” Ha said. This is an important meeting in a series of ASEAN and ASEAN+3 financial cooperation events chaired by Vietnam this year to prepare for the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting slated for September.

Representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Director of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the ASEAN Deputy Secretary General, and deputy finance ministers and deputy governors of central banks of ASEAN member countries attended the meeting.

Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governors of the central banks of ASEAN member states and China, the Republic of Korea (RoK), and Japan discussed the region’s financial cooperation initiatives, such as the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) and the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), and approved policies and plans for the mid-term operations of AMRO.

Participants expressed their appreciation of the progress made in the continuous completion of the CMIM to meet new requirements in the financial market and to be in accordance with a coordination mechanism between the CMIM and IMF, thus making the CMIM an effective tool of regional and global security networks.

The conference recognised efforts of AMRO as an international organisation which has implemented macro-economic monitoring activities and supported countries to strengthen their capacity to formulate policies amid limited human and budget constraints.

🐷 Participants approved budget and budget plans of AMRO in 2021, and the report on the capacity of AMRO’s Director in 2019.

The deputies also highly appreciated the results of the ABMI working group in researching and improving the environment to attract investors, developing new investment tools, completing the legal framework and developing infrastructure for the bond market, as well as implementing technical assistance programmes to develop the domestic bond market of member economies

🌄 In the hope of intensifying regional economic and financial stability, the delegates considered the pace of implementation of new initiatives within the framework of the Strategic Directions of ASEAN+3 Finance Process.

These initiatives include the promotion of local currency use for trade and investment settlement, as well as payment connectivity; comprehensive development of initiative on infrastructure financing; designing more supporting facilities to help members better deal with macro-critical structural issues; exploring co-operation in the fields of mitigation and adaptation of climate change; and enhancing policy coordination to harness benefits of technological advancement while minimising risks.

🥂 During this meeting, the Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governors of central banks had a special discussion session to share policy measures in response to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to update the situation in and assess the macro-economic prospects of regional countries.

Founded in 1967, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups 10 member countries, namely Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. This meeting was considered an important milestone in the ASEAN+3 financial cooperation progress in 2020 under Vietnam’s 2020 ASEAN Chairmanship. The outcomes of the discussion will be reported to the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in September 2020. /.