Minister of Vietnam Finance, Mr. Dinh Tien Dung said, under the direction of the Government and Vietnam industries at all levels, including financial sector prepared in all areas to join ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). It is expected to be formed by the end of 2015. After attending the 19th ASEAN Finance Ministers’ and Central Bank Governors Meeting (AFMGM) firstly held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on March 21, Minister Dinh Tien Dung said that Vietnam financial sector will ensure the integration requirements.
About tax sector, up until now, Vietnam tax level has met the requirements for tax reduction in ASEAN, and the industry is carrying out steps towards harmonization of tax procedures. In the field of customs, finance in Vietnam has been conducting with electronic customs clearance and connecting to deploy OSS mechanism country and towards the OSS mechanism ASEAN in late 2015. Minister Dinh Tien Dung said that to attend this conference, Vietnam delegation is interested in the process of building ASEAN Economic Community, strengthening the sector of infrastructural support and promoting cooperations in the field of tax administration. The minister also shared that up until now, ASEAN has completed 85% of the work according to route of AEC community building, of which the financial integration is assessed as the highest ratio in measures of building AEC.
However, ASEAN Finance Ministers noted that challenges remain after the formation of the AEC and country members will continue to make an action plan to implement AEC such as enhancing financial stability, supporting ability improvement, narrowing the development gap, strengthening comprehensive finance, strengthening comprehensive finance, improving macroeconomic surveillance and policy dialogues. In terms of infrastructural support, ASEAN Infrastructure Fund has the participation of 10 members. Now, Indonesia and Vietnam are two countries having projects borrowing loans from the fund, including Power transmission project in Vietnam. In the future, Vietnam will continue to build the pipeline infrastructure to borrow capital from the fund and improve the position of Vietnam in ASEAN Economic Community. And, this will be an additional financial resource, contributing to the development of infrastructure in Vietnam. On the issue of tax cooperation, the Minister said that despite being at different levels of development, countries besides the implementation of commitments on tariff reductions should strengthen cooperation and exchange policies towards objectives of tax harmonization, ensuring to have continuity between domestic and international policies.
Referring to the results of AFMM-19 and AFMGM, the ministers said that 2015 would be a milestones marking the establishment of ASEAN economic community and building ASEAN Vision after 2015, to set goals and framework for further ASEAN integration in the next 10 years. The conference focused on discussing the areas of financial cooperation such as insurance, customs, tax cooperation, infrastructural funding to implement the goals of the ASEAN Economic Community and promoting the development of infrastructure, harmonization of tax solutions to ensure customs revenue, anti-tax losses, pricing transfer and tax fraud. That ASEAN held the first AFMGM made the determination of leaders of ASEAN financial agencies and banks in tight collaboration to accelerate the process of financial monetary integration after the formation of ASEAN Economic Community. By dint of the integration, Vietnam economy will be strengthen and promoted.