Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Sept. 19 received Chief Representative of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Vietnam Benedict Bingham and his successor Sanjay Kalra, on the occasion of completing Bingham’s tenure in the country. At the reception, PM Dung spoke highly of Bingham’s efforts and cooperative goodwill, as well as the recent close cooperation between IMF and the Vietnamese Government. He said that the organisation’s annual assessments on the country’s macroeconomic situation are appropriate and closely reflect the reality of the country’s situation thanks to the close coordination between IMF and Vietnam ’s ministries and sectors. The PM said this actively contributed to the guidance and management of the Vietnamese Government. Dung said the country’s macroeconomic policy in recent times was targeted at the three key pillars of giving priority to restraining inflation and stabilising the macro-economy; fostering economic restructuring to raise the economy’s effectiveness and competitiveness; and ensuring social security, especially for the poor and unemployed. He expressed his wish that IMF would cooperate further with the Vietnamese Government to provide practical and effective consultancy on economic policies in the country, adding that the Government always applauded IMF’s opinions on managing the macro-economy and viewed the organisation as a “fellow traveller”. The Prime Minister also suggested Sanjay Kalra seek support for Vietnam to become the host of an IMF Annual Meeting. Benedict Bingham thanked Vietnam ’s ministries and sectors for their support during his tenure in the country, affirming that Sanjay Kalra, who had strong experience in Asian finance, would make active contributions to cooperative relations between Vietnam and IMF, especially in policy consultation, assisting the country to deal with the consequences of economic crisis and recession.
Bingham said he believed that cooperative ties between IMF and Vietnam would continue to improve.
Sanjay Kalra expressed his pleasure to work in Vietnam , pledging to exert his efforts with the aim of helping the country’s Government reach its planned development targets./.
