Ministers of Finance discuss about the global and regional macroeconomic and financial issues

An overview of the press conference.

300 delegates attend

Mr. Vu Nhu Thang, Director General of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministry of Finance, said that in 2017, Vietnam was honored to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. Accordingly, the Ministry of Finance is assigned to chair the 2017 APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting. So far, the Ministry has accomplished important tasks: Presiding successfully over the Deputy Finance Minister and Deputy Governor Central Bank (FCBDM) in February 2017 in Nha Trang; chairing successfully the Senior Finance Officials Meeting (SFOM) in May in Ninh Binh; collaborating with international partners such as WB, OECD and ADB to organize many international conferences on priority topics, which were highly appreciated by the APEC’s partners and members.

In October 2017, the Ministry of Finance will continue hosting the 24th APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting (FMM) on October 21, 2017, in Hoi An, Quang Nam Province. This is the most important event of the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting.

Before the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting, the APEC Finance Ministers' Meeting and the APEC Deputy Finance Ministers' Meeting and Senior Vice Presidents will be held on October 19-21, 2017 to prepare the content, complete the reports and documents to submit to the Ministers.

It is expected that attending the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting and Related Summits will have about 300 international and domestic participants, including Ministers of Finance, Leaders in Financial Sector and Leaders of Central banks of 21 regional economies, senior leaders of international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

4 priority topics

Speaking to reporters about the activities at the conference, Mr. Thang shared: Ministers of Finance will discuss the global and regional macroeconomic and financial developments; review the results of the financial cooperation process on 4 priority Focus on the four priority topics of the year; update the implementation of the Cebu Action Plan, and discuss other issues of concern.

About the topics discussed at the conference, based on the APEC 2017 theme “Creating new dynamism and fostering a shared future”, at the Conference of Deputy Ministers and Deputy Governors of the Central Bank in February 2017, the deputy ministers and deputy governors agreed to four priorities for cooperation in 2017, including: long-term investment in infrastructure; base erosion of profit shifting; financial and disaster risk insurance; and inclusive finance.

On long-term investment in infrastructure, the topic focuses on handling the issues of mobilizing long-term private sector funds for infrastructure projects, particularly the mechanisms for benefit-sharing and reducing the risk for private investors when participating in PPP projects. The experience of international organizations and economies in dealing with issues related to PPP projects, especially the issue of risk sharing between the public and private sectors, is one of the topics were discussed at FCBDM, SFOM and the Workshop on Long-term Investment in Infrastructure (May 2017).

APEC financial officials also discussed with international partners about effective project management tools and the coordination of skills training for using these tools for project managers at the APEC member economies.

On the base erosion of profit shifting, these issues are of particular concern to APEC member economies and strongly supported by international organizations, especially the OECD and the World Bank. Through discussion at the workshop on BEPS Action Plan - Experience in implementation of the APEC economies (February 2017), the FCBDM and SFOM, financial officials agreed to increase knowledge sharing, experience, and training activities in the region to raise awareness of BEPS and actively participate in the BEPS project of the G20/OECD.

On finance and disaster risk insurance, it focuses on financial solutions and insurance dealing with natural disasters and compensating for damage caused by natural disasters.

Through discussions at the Conference on Financial Policy and Disaster Risk Insurance (February 2017), the FCBDM and SFOM, APEC financial officials exchanged experiences on developing a financial strategy to deal with natural disaster risks at the national and local level, and financial risk management policies for public assets in the APEC member economies, as well as APEC’s activities on the finance for dealing with disaster risk.

About the inclusive finance, the topic focuses on developing credit markets and financial products and services to meet the needs of agricultural and rural development, looking towards sustainable poverty reduction, restructuring and developing the agriculture having quality.

Financial officials also co-operated with international partners to share research reports to promote the inclusive finance in the APEC region, and to implement collaborative activities to enhance credit information sharing. The inclusive finance topics were discussed at the FCBDM, SFOM, Seminar on Cross-border Credit Information Exchange (May 2017), APEC Forum on Inclusive Financial and the APEC Forum on Financial Infrastructure Development Network (July 2017).

The results of cooperation in the four priority areas will be reported to the Ministers on October 21, 2017, on that basis, Ministers will issue a joint statement on regional financial cooperation, the priority themes for cooperation in the year, and a look for the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting in the coming time.

The results of the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting will be reported to the 2017 APEC National Committee to prepare for the APEC Summit in November 2017. The success of the APEC Finance Ministers Meeting will contribute to the results of the 2017 APEC Summit as well as the overall success of Vietnam on APEC Vietnam 2017.