On June 25-26, 2018, the third Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) was organized in Mumbai, India, with the theme of “Mobilizing Finance for Infrastructure: Innovation and Collaboration”. The Meeting was attended by thousands of representatives from 86 AIIB member countries, bilateral and multilateral financial organizations, social organizations, scholars, correspondents and entrepreneurs. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended and made a keynote speech at the Meeting.
Vietnam’s delegation composed of representatives from the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), the Government’s Office, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and a number of financial institutions, led by SBV Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh, attended the events of the Meeting.
Opening session of AIIB 3rd Annual Meeting
At the official meeting, the AIIB’s Board of Directors submitted to the Board of Governors of AIIB for consideration and approval of the Resolutions on the Annual Report 2017; the estimated budget for 2018; the results of the voting for the AIIB’s Board of Directors for the term of 2018 - 2020; the adoption of the Republic of Lebanon as the 87th member of the AIIB; the plan of organizing the AIIB’s Annual Meeting 2019; and the votings for the next term senior management, in which the Governor of the Central Bank of Luxembourg was voted to as the next President, and the Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (the Central Bank) and the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt as the next Vice Presidents of the AIIB Board of Governors.
In line with the spirit of the Annual Meeting, the Governors’ Business Roundtable session discussed the topic of "Mobilizing Private Capital", and came up with important directions for the AIIB’s operational orientations aiming at realizing the objectives of innovation and creativity in investment in three key areas of transport, sustainable urban development and enhancement of private capital.
On this occasion, Vietnam’s delegation also had a high-level meeting with AIIB Vice President D. J. Pandian. At the meeting, Deputy Governor Kim Anh highly appreciated the goodwill and attention of the AIIB to Vietnam’s demand for investment in infrastructure development and shared the advantages and challenges that Vietnam is facing. He also thanked the technical staff of the AIIB for their cooperation with the SBV, which is the representative unit of Vietnam at the AIIB, and for having researched the market and proposed flexible forms of financial support in accordance with the Government's proposal and Vietnam's context of strengthening the cooperation and financing infrastructure via the private sector to promote the participation of this sector as well as to ensure the security of public debts.
Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh meets AIIB Vice President D. J. Pandian
For his part, the AIIB Vice President emphasized the importance of Vietnam as a founding member, a reliable and responsible partner in the international community. He said that the AIIB is committed to providing the best possible conditions, and flexible financial products that are appropriate to the context and the needs of Vietnam to support the infrastructure development. He informed that the AIIB has officially affirmed to consider the possibility of financing some projects in the list proposed by Vietnam, and would strive to reach the target of funding for Vietnam this year.
On the sidelines of the AIIB Annual Meeting, Vietnam’s delegation also had high-level meetings with the international partners. At the meeting with Mr. Michael Lawrence, General Director of Asiahouse, a leading trade promotion organization based in London, the United Kingdom, Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh exchanged about the investment environment, major development orientations as well as potential cooperation between Vietnamese companies and the companies from the EU in general and the United Kingdom in particular. For his part, the General Director of Asiahouse made positive assessments of Vietnam's efforts and achievements in socio-economic development, business environment improvement, and Vietnam's active involvement in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements and institutions, opening up favorable and attractive cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and the international partners. He committed that Asiahouse would play an active role in turning such international cooperation opportunities into reality.
Vietnam’s delegation also had a meeting with the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) of India. At the meeting, the representative of NABARD shared with the delegation their experience in promoting sustainable agricultural and rural development, including microfinance, agricultural finance…Deputy Governor Nguyen Kim Anh suggested NABARD continue to maintain liaison with the SBV and Vietnamese partners, especially Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (VBARD) to study and formulate new policies to support the provision of financial products for agriculture and rural development. He expressed his hopes that the meeting would be a good start for the long-term, stable and effective cooperation between the two sides in the coming time.
In order to strengthen the partnership and coordination with other member countries of the AIIB, Vietnamese delegation also had meetings with the Governors/Heads of delegations of Australia, Singapore and New Zealand and several other high-level bilateral meetings with the partners of the host country of India.
Le Hang