Vietnamese minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung met with his Thai counterpart Apisak Tantivorawong on April 4, discussing priorities in finance issues in Asean in 2019 and 2020.
The meeting took place on the threshold of the 23rd Asean Finance ministers’ Meeting (AFMM 23) and the fifth Asean Finance ministers’ and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting (AFMGM 5) held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, which will both officially be convened on April 5.
Apisak Tantivorawong laid stress on the prioritised themes of the event in 2019, including payment infrastructure connection and sustainable finance, and expressed his hope that Vietnam will continue to tackle the issues when it comes to chairing the meetings in 2020.
Dung, for his part, took note of Thailand’s top priorities and said that the Vietnamese government set up the National Asean 2020 Committee to make preparations for the country’s chairmanship next year.
The same day, Dung had a meeting with Secretary-General of Asean Jock Hoi, during which he spoke highly of Asean Secretariat’s roles to the development of the block and the Asean Economic Community in the past time.
In the finance-banking cooperation process, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam will join hands to take up the Asean Chair in 2020, he said, adding that Vietnam will closely follow the Asean Economic Community Blueprint 2025 and the Asean Financial Integration and Cooperation Process with vision until 2025, while inheriting the priorities of the previous hosts and seeing the national target as a basis to build rational contents.
Taking place from April 2-5, the 23rd AFMM, fifth AFMGM, and related meetings will discuss such issues as the liberalisation of cross-border financial services and e-payment, and the role of currencies in the region. Finance ministers will work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to branch out the green bond market, supporting environmentally friendly projects in the region.
