
Bangkok (VNA) – Vietnamese Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung met withhis Thai counterpart Apisak Tantivorawong on April 4, discussing priorities infinance 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 BankGovernors’ Meeting (AFMGM 5) held in Chiang Rai, Thailand, which will bothofficially be convened on April 5.
Apisak Tantivorawong laid stress on the prioritised themes of the event in2019, including payment infrastructure connection and sustainable finance, andexpressed his hope that Vietnam will continue to tackle the issues when it comesto chairing the meetings in 2020.
Dung, for his part, took note of Thailand’s top priorities and said that theVietnamese Government set up the National ASEAN 2020 Committee to make preparationsfor 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 ofthe block and the ASEAN Economic Community in the past time.
In the finance-banking cooperation process, the Vietnamese Ministry of Financeand the State Bank of Vietnam will join hands to take up the ASEAN Chair in2020, he said, adding that Vietnam will closely follow the ASEAN EconomicCommunity Blueprint 2025 and the ASEAN Financial Integration and CooperationProcess with vision until 2025, while inheriting the priorities of the previoushosts 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 meetingswill discuss such issues as the liberalisation of cross-border financialservices and e-payment, and the role of currencies in the region. Financeministers will work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to branch out thegreen bond market, supporting environmentally friendly projects in the region.–VNA