The event was part of an official visit to Vietnam by USSecretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen.
Speakers at the meeting pointed out that the world economy isstill facing numerous difficulties in the post-COVID-19 pandemic period, including highand persistent inflation, the trend of tightening monetary policies, disrupted supplychains, growth slowdown, and recession risks. Besides, countries also have had tocope with challenges posed by climate change.
These problems have been negatively affecting enterprises' productionand business activities as well as people’s life quality, they said.
SBV Governor Nguyen Thi Hong said the central bank of Vietnam is alwayssteadfast in the target of controlling inflation, stabilising the macro-economy,and ensuring safety for the banking system. To that end, it has kept a closewatch on the situation, proactively used measures and tools at appropriate levelsand points of time, identified the focus of each period to take suitableactions, and closely coordinated the monetary policy with the fiscal and othermacro-economic policies.
Meanwhile, Yellen said the US is pursuing policy priorities that aims to strengthen theresilience of supply chains and promote strong and comprehensive growth, andthat it is ready to cooperate with Vietnam to overcome challenges and developtheir economies.
Talking about climate change response measures, VietnameseMinister of Natural Resources and Environment Dang Quoc Khanh described climatechange as an irreversible trend and the most serious challenge to humanity atpresent. Climate change response therefore is becoming one of the priorities ofall development decisions in the world.
As one of the countries hit hardest by climate change, Vietnam has played anactive and responsible role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adaptingto this global phenomenon. It has also taken steps to adopt a green developmentmodel. The country made a commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050 atthe 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) and recently approveda political declaration on the establishment of the Just Energy Transition Partnership(JETP) with G7 and non-G7 partners, he went on.
Yellen held that to minimise adverse impacts of climate change, countrieswill need a lot of time and resources, adding the US attaches importance to therole of multilateral development banks (MDBs) and the private sector in mobilisingfinance for climate change response projects and programmes.
Meanwhile,Hong noted as an important source of finance for the economy, the bankingsector of Vietnam is always aware of its role in providing funding for the realisationof the Sustainable Development Goals.
She shared Yellen’s view that countries can diversify capitalsources for “green” projects through MDBs like the World Bank (WB) and the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) to use long-term loans with reasonable costs to resolveclimate change challenges.
The meeting, which attracted over 300 participants including many femaleofficials and FTU students, affirmed women’s role and attention as well asyoung people’s awareness and determination to join hands to cope with suchglobal challenges as climate change to achieve a greener society and asustainable and prosperous future for all./.