At a press briefing in Hanoi on March 26, the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance announced that the 14th ASEAN Financial Ministers Meeting (AFMM 14) will focus on increasing the supervisory capacity and coordination of measures and policies towards sustainable economic development in the region.

The ministers will discuss their top leaders’ initiatives to establish the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund and the ASEAN Finance and Macro-economic Surveillance Unit.

They are expected to sign a revised protocol on the ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN) to facilitate the statistical work and declaration of import-export commodities within the regional grouping.

Meanwhile, Deputy Finance Ministers from ASEAN and their three dialogue partners (China, Japan and the Republic of Korea) will meet in Nha Trang on April 6-7.

They will examine progress in implementing ASEAN+3 financial cooperation initiative, the Asia bond market initiative (ABMI) and the Chiang Mai initiative multilateralisation (CMIM) agreement. They will also review the regional and global macro economies and approve plans of action for financial cooperation in 2010.

The ASEAN General Secretary and the President of the Asian Development Bank will attended these meetings.