Next month's regional meetings to be held in Thai North

BANGKOK, March 28 (TNA) - The Thai government, through the Ministry of Finance, will host the 23rd ASEAN Finance Ministers’Meeting, the 5th ASEAN Finance Ministers’and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting and related forums in the Thai North next month. Thai Finance Ministry Spokesman Lawan Saengsanit, who is also Director-General of the ministry's Fiscal Policy Office (FPO), announced on March 27 that the regional gatherings will be organized in the northern Chiang Rai Province during April 2-5. The spokesman told journalists that the top agenda of the upcoming regional gatherings include joint moves by member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to expedite the full implementation of the ASEAN Single Window (ASW) system and to launch the Green Finance initiative in the near future. Besides, plans on the joint management of the regional digital financial markets, the cyber security enhancement and the advanced payment systems through either the QR-Code or the connection of official e-payment channels of ASEAN member countries are included on the top agenda to be discussed at next month's regional gatherings. "All ASEAN member countries, except Lao PDR, will discuss their accelerating moves to fully connect and integrate their National Single Window (NSW) systems with the ASW system to speed up their cross-border cargo clearance through the electronic exchange of trade-related documents without any redundancy. For Lao PDR, the Thai Ministry of Finance will help develop the NSW system of the neighboring country, playing a counseling role", the spokesman stated. "For the Green Finance initiative, aimed to, in particular, promote and support loans and the issuance of bonds and other debt instruments for environmental conservation projects in the region, it will be steered by the Manila-based ASEAN Development Bank (ADB), while the initiative on the advanced payment systems is aimed to reduce costs on foreign exchanges and to facilitate and further develop financial transaction processes in the region", the spokesman explained. According to the spokesman, there should be about 300 participants in the upcoming regional gatherings, including finance ministers, central banks' governors and senior finance ministries' officials of ASEAN and the 10-member bloc's three dialogue partners, including China, Japan and South Korea, as well as senior executives of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), the ADB, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The spokesman said that representatives of the private sector will also participate in the upcoming regional gatherings in Chiang Rai, including those from the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, the EU-ASEAN Business Council and the US-ASEAN Business Council. Thailand plays the role of the ASEAN Chairmanship in 2019 with the theme of "Advancing Partnership for Sustainability”. (TNA)