ASEAN+3 countries discuss financial cooperation

The ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting (AFCDM+3) is held via video conferencing on August 5 under the chair of Vietnam and Japan. (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi - The ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting (AFCDM+3) was held via video conferencing on August 5 under the chair of Vietnam and Japan.

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.

Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governors of the central banks of ASEAN member states and China, the Republic of Korea, 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 the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (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 CMIM and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

They spoke highly of efforts made by AMRO to carry out macro-economic supervision and to support member states in improving their policy-making capacity.

They also hailed the achievements made by ABMI working groups in researching measures to better the investment environment, developing new investment tools, completing the legal framework, upgrading infrastructure for the bond market, and carrying out technical assistance programmes to improve the bond markets of member economies.

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

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.