The 17th ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting convened on 3rd May 2014 in Astana, Kazakhstan, under the co-chairmanship of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, and Japan. Attending the Meeting were Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors of ASEAN, China, Japan and Korea, the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Director of ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) and the Deputy Secretary General of ASEAN. Deputy Finance Minister Nguyen Cong Nghiep led the Vietnam Delegation to attend the Meeting.
At the Meeting, ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors exchanged views on recent global and regional economic developments and policy responses; reviewed the progress of regional financial cooperation achieved since the last Meeting, including on the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM), AMRO, the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI), the ASEAN+3 Research Group (RG), and Future Priorities. They also discussed measures to further strengthen the regional financial cooperation in the future.
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors reaffirmed commitment to further strengthen the CMIM as part of the regional financial safety net. They appreciated the achievements in completing the revision of the Operational Guidelines of the amended CMIM Agreement; endorsed the "Guidelines for the further cooperation with the International Monetary Fund" to help enhance CMIM's effectiveness and AMRO's capacity; welcomed the work to develop the first full set of indicators of the "Economic Review and Policy Dialogue (ERPD) Matrix" which consists of various economic and financial indicators of all ASEAN+3 members and is intended to be used to assess members' qualification for the CMIM's crisis prevention facility.
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors noted the steady development of AMRO as an independent surveillance unit in the region; encouraged AMRO to continue its efforts to improve its analysis on the regional macroeconomic and financial situation, identify risks facing the region and suggest appropriate policy actions; reaffirmed commitment to complete domestic processes as soon as possible for the prompt signature and entry into force of the AMRO Agreement for transforming AMRO into an international organization to enable it to conduct surveillance activities effectively as an independent surveillance unit in the region.
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors endorsed the progress report and work plan prepared by the Asian Bond Markets Initiative (ABMI) Taskforce; acknowledged the scaling-up of the guarantee capacity of the Credit Guarantee and Investment Facility (CGIF) from US$700 million to US$1.75 billion, the progress in the "Fostering Infrastructure Financing Bonds Development" technical assistance project and appreciated the ADB and the ABMI Taskforce in exploring new additional investment tools; welcomed the recommendations submitted by the Cross-border Settlement Infrastructure Forum (CSIF); and recognized achievements of technical assistance programs to develop local bond markets of member countries.
Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors welcomed the progress of the studies on each of the three possible areas of ASEAN+3 financial cooperation: i) infrastructure financing, ii) disaster risk insurance, and iii) using local currencies for the regional trade settlement; and instructed task forces to continue in-depth studies and put forward policy recommendations in each area.
The 18th ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ will be held in Baku, the Republic of Azerbaijan in 2015 under the co-chairmanship of Malaysia and the Republic of Korea.
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