The central banks of Laos and Vietnam will enhance bilateral cooperation in information technology, technical matters and other important areas related to banking.

Senior officials of the two banks met in Vientiane on Tuesday, led by Bank of the Lao PDR (BoL) governor Sonexay Sithphaxay State Bank of Vietnam governor Le Minh Hung.

The meeting between the two central banks reviewed achievements in the past year in financial and currency cooperation and sought ways to strengthen their future collaboration. The meeting also discussed macroeconomics, currency policies, management of state-owned commercial banks, and other relevant issues.

In his keynote remarks, Sonexay said there were several challenges in the financial sector related to the regional and global economic downturn, the Sino-US trade dispute and the fluctuation in the value of the US dollar and global fuel prices.

“In Laos alone, there are difficulties in budgetary deficit, an increase of public debt and the liquidity problems of some state-owned commercial banks. However, the political and economic affairs remain stabilised,” he said.

Representatives of the two central banks’ departments discussed the macroeconomic situation, the implementation of monetary policies, banking supervision and payment operations.

Hung said Vietnam’s central bank is keen to continue its cooperation and sharing of experiences with BoL in numerous areas of banking.

The two banks pledged to promote and create favourable conditions for commercial banks of the two countries to establish cooperation, trade and investment presence on both sides to encourage the development of banking systems and to better serve the investment, trade and business activities of businesses and investors of Laos and Vietnam.

At the end of the meeting, the representatives of Vietnamese firms in Laos had an opportunity to share experiences about their business operations with officials of the central banks.

The central banks signed two memorandums of understanding for cooperation in information technology and technical matters.

The Ambassador of Vietnam to Laos, Nguyen Ba Hung, was present at the meeting.

VIENTIANE TIMES