The Minister of Finance Hồ Đức Phớc worked with the Vice President of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Abmed Saeed via zoom meeting on Thursday on priorities in cooperation between the two sides.

The online meeting at the Ministry of Finance

At the meeting, ADB Vice President Ahmed Saeed congratulated Minister of Finance Hồ Đức Phớc on his new position and proposed contents of cooperation with the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam; ADB's initiatives in the region relevant to Vietnam and ADB's expected support for Vietnam in the 2021-2025 period; a program to support countries in COVID-19 prevention and control; projects on support loans without government guarantees.

The ADB Vice President expects Vietnam to join the above programs to bring the ties between the ADB and Ministry of Finance of Vietnam to a new level.

The Minister Hồ Đức Phớc at the meeting.

Minister of Finance Hồ Đức Phớc highly appreciated ADB's cooperation initiatives and thanked ADB for its support for the Ministry of Finance, which have contributed to the country’s socio-economic development.

Minister Hồ Đức Phớc spoke about Vietnam's macroeconomic situation. Vietnam is facing a resurgence of the Covid-19 pandemic, seriously affecting socio-economic life.

Up to 23 provinces and cities of Vietnam are implementing social distancing, affecting the production and business of the business community, reducing economic growth as well as state budget revenue. However, the Government of Vietnam still focuses on pandemic prevention and control and economic development.

ADB Vice President Ahmed Saeed and ADB delegates at the meeting

Regarding ADB's cooperation initiatives, the Minister said that he welcomed ADB's initiatives, especially the project to combat climate change with the mechanism to use clean energy to replace coal and financial support policies to help Vietnam contain the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Ministry of Finance of Vietnam is also interested in ADB's technical assistance program for the Ministry of Finance in carrying out priority tasks in the near future such as tax administration reform, financial market development, and other public financial management services.

At the meeting, the two sides discussed cooperation proposals. Minister Hồ Đức Phớc and ADB Vice President Ahmed Saeed both expressed their desire for closer and more effective coordination between the two sides for the common goal of bringing prosperity to Vietnam.