The lessons learned in operating financial and banking policies in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic will contribute to help the financial and banking management agencies to build efficiency and increase economic growth of each country as well as of the whole region

On October 1, 2020, the Meeting of Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governors of the Central Bank of ASEAN and US Deputy Finance Ministers (AFCDM Conference) took place in Hanoi. This is an important opening meeting that takes place on the sidelines of the Conference of Finance Ministers and the Governor of the Central Bank of ASEAN chaired by Vietnam in 2020.

Attending the meeting were Deputy Minister of Finance of the United States in charge of international affairs, Mr. Brent McIntosh, Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN, Deputy Finance Minister, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of ASEAN countries. Deputy Minister of Finance Tran Xuan Ha and Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Nguyen Thi Hong co-chaired the Conference.

The dialogue between ASEAN's financial-banking cooperation channel with the US Ministry of Finance is an annual dialogue activity that plays an important role in exchanging information and sharing views in the financial-banking sector to help the parties to coordinate macroeconomic policies effectively and contribute to financial stability and sustainability.

At the meeting, Deputy Finance Ministers, Deputy Governors of the Central Bank of ASEAN countries together with their counterparts from the US discussed issues that are of special concern to the region and the world today including economic policies in response to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic; share views and experiences in public debt management and financial transparency for infrastructure development.

Deputy Ministers and Deputy Governors shared the recognition that the current world economic context is facing many difficulties and challenges. Therefore, the close cooperation between the two countries as well as in the region between the financial institutions - banks of the countries plays an important role.

 In addition, the Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governor of the ASEAN Central Bank and the US Deputy Finance Ministers also spent time discussing transparency issues in public debt management and infrastructure development finance.. These are the contents that the United States has a lot of experience and can share with ASEAN countries in policy development and appropriate application in debt management activities to ensure sustainability and transparency in debt management. 
The conference shared the lessons learned in operating financial and banking policies in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, which will contribute to helping the financial and banking policy management agencies to set up effective policies that respond to the effects of the pandemic, at the same time, promoting economic growth for each country and the region.

With regard to infrastructure development, the meeting emphasized the particularly important role of infrastructure finance in the region. The lack of suitable long-term financial sources is a major barrier to infrastructure development, so the cooperation and sharing of experiences in finding and mobilizing financial resources for infrastructure development Infrastructure is an issue of great concern in the ASEAN region.

At the conference, Deputy Minister Tran Xuan Ha shared a speech about the management of financial policies in response to the COVID-19 epidemic in Vietnam over the past time. Implement outstanding measures to share difficulties for people and support businesses to overcome the crisis and continue to implement the dual goal of fighting epidemics, prevent epidemics and promote economic development. Additionally, the Deputy Minister also shared his views in public debt management and infrastructure development finance.

The meeting highly appreciated the exchange contents of the Deputy Ministers and Deputy Governors, which will add to a comprehensive perspective for the ASEAN public policy building region, thereby will have appropriate and synchronous policy adjustments in each member economy and coordinate implementation in the region to jointly create a favorable investment and business environment in the region and contribute to the sustainable development of the finance and banking industry and the regional economy in general.

The Meeting of Deputy Finance Ministers and Deputy Governors of the ASEAN Central Bank and the US Deputy Finance Minister took place successful that contributes to the chain of activities within the framework of ASEAN financial cooperation in 2020.