ASEAN finance and central bank deputies’ meeting opens in Nha Trang
The ASEAN Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting (AFDM) opened in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province, on April 5, chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha.
Delegates discussed the major contents of ASEAN financial cooperation to be submitted to the 14th ASEAN Financial Ministers Meeting (AFMM 14), planned for April 8.
They examined reports on the roadmap for financial and monetary integration, with a focus on capital market development, liberalization of financial services and initiatives to boost financial cooperation among ASEAN-member countries.
They appreciated the progress in implementation of action plans to achieve the set target of building an economic ASEAN community by 2015.
They also approved working groups’ recommendations regarding the creation of the ASEAN capital market index to evaluate the development and liquidity of the market and boost investment promotion in ASEAN.
The meeting also looked at an initiative to establish an ASEAN infrastructure fund in collaboration with the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), in order to mobilise capital sources for infrastructure development in the region.
ASEAN Deputy Ministers of Finance agreed to sign the revised Protocol on the ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature (AHTN), which would perfect import-export tariffs and facilitate statistical work among ASEAN-member countries.
For initiatives to strengthen financial cooperation between ASEAN and China, the Republic of Korea, and Japan (ASEAN+3), the meeting discussed the implementation of the Asia bond market initiative (ABMI) and the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) Agreement. These two initiatives will be submitted to the ASEAN+3 Finance and Central Bank Deputies’ Meeting (AFDM+3) on April 6.