The 28^th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Level Committee on Financial Integration for the 2024-2026 term opened in Da Nang on Friday.

Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Pham Thanh Ha (2nd from right) and Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Indonesia Filianingsih Hendarta (2nd from left) co-chaired the meeting. Photo: M.Q

It was attended by nearly 100 delegates who were Deputy Governors of central banks of ASEAN member countries, the ASEAN Secretariat, and the ASEAN Banking Association, and representatives of international organisations.

In his opening speech, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam Pham Thanh Ha said that the meeting took place in the context of changing regional and global economies. The global economic outlook is increasingly positive and economies are gradually recovering, however, there are still many uncertainties and challenges.

In this context, ASEAN has been demonstrating its ability to recover and develop strongly. Therefore, it is critical for ASEAN member nations to work together to ensure that ASEAN financial systems are both integrated and resilient as envisaged in the ASEAN Economic Community Vision 2025.

2024 is a pivotal year for ASEAN as it is both a reflection on the progress of the ASEAN Economic Community Vision by 2025 and a time to chart the future of ASEAN by developing strategic plans to realise the aforementioned vision, he emphasised.

He also highlighted that the meeting provided a good opportunity for participants to discuss how to implement initiatives across the spectrum of integration in ASEAN itself, including key updates from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) on global and regional macroeconomic developments.

Also, it featured progress reports from ASEAN working groups and key initiatives including the ASEAN Sustainable Finance Taxonomy, the ASEAN Green Map and the re-establishment of the ASEAN Currency Swap Arrangement, he added.

The meeting in progress. Photo: M.Q

The 28^th Meeting of the ASEAN Senior Level Committee on Financial Integration is the first event co-chaired by the Deputy Governors of the State Bank of Viet Nam and the Central Bank of Indonesia.

The meeting provided guidelines for the implementation of future activities of the ASEAN Working Groups on Banking Cooperation, including the ASEAN Working Group on Banking Integration, Capital Liberalisation, Financial Services Liberalisation, comprehensive finance, capital market development, and payment system development.

Within the framework of the ASEAN Banking Integration process, the ASEAN Senior Level Committee on Financial Integration was established in 2011 with the aim to provide guidelines and coordinate the implementation of financial and banking integration initiatives in the region. The members of the ASEAN Senior Level Committee on Financial Integration are deputy governors of central banks in ASEAN.

In the 2024-2026 term, the State Bank of Viet Nam and the Central Bank of Indonesia are playing a co-chairing role with the main task of guiding the ASEAN financial and banking integration process; as well as connecting central banks in ASEAN with regional financial and banking regulators and international partners to promote policy dialogue for the stability of the financial and banking sector and implement inter-regional and multi-sector multilateral initiatives.

Reporting by MAI QUE - Translating by M.DUNG, T.TUNG