9 July 2010
Australia supports financial sector capacity building in Laos and the East Asia Summit
The East Asia Summit (EAS) seminar and workshop on “Structuring and Restructuring Financial Markets,” formally came to a close on Friday 2 July in Vientiane, after a highly successful week of capacity building activities.
The “Structuring and Restructuring Financial Markets” event was funded by the Australian Government Treasury, with support from the Lao Securities and Exchange Commission Office (SECO), the Securities Industry Development Corporation Malaysia and the ASEAN Secretariat. The one day seminar and three day technical workshop formed part of a broader, targeted capacity building program and built on a highly successful pilot program held in Cambodia last year and Malaysia this year. The capacity building program aims at assisting Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to overcome the challenges presented by financial sector reform.
The seminar was formally opened by His Excellency Mr Phouphet Khamphounvong, Governor of the Bank of Lao PDR. Speaking at the Opening Ceremony, the Australian Charge d’Affaires, Mr Phillip Molloy said “Strengthening markets, deepening financial sector cooperation and enhancing regional economic integration are crucial tasks in overcoming these maximising the opportunities presented by financial sector reform.”
“Australia was very pleased be invited by the Lao Government and Lao Securities and Exchange Commission to participate and coordinate the inaugural second EAS capacity building program here in Vientiane” Mr Molloy said.
Australian Treasury official, Mr Leslie Williams, added “As co sponsor of this program, Australia was delighted to receive positive and strong support from Ministers and member countries for this capacity building work”, referring in particular to support received during the inaugural EAS Finance Minisiters’ Meeting in May, in Tashkent.
The one day seminar on 29 June was attended by around seventy five financial sector officials from Laos, along with delegates from Cambodia and Vietnam. Both the seminar and proceeding three day technical workshop (30 June – 2 July) attracted a high calibre of special guest presenters, including expert trainers from Australia, Malaysia, India, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.
The capacity building program will help participants to deepen their understanding of approaches to structuring and restructuring financial markets, strengthen essential technical skills in supervising and managing expanding financial markets, devising strategic approaches to financial reform and formulating innovative and practical solutions to challenges.
Mr Williams noted that “the EAS capacity building activities play a small but important role through which the broader implementation of G20 financial sector reform priorities is being supported.”
“In the longer term, the EAS capacity building program will help develop the infrastructure, institutions, systems and processes required to support expanding financial markets. It will help expand domestic markets and will help ensure that financial markets in least developed EAS countries make stronger contributions to economic growth and investment,” Mr Molloy explained.
Mr Williams commented that “Together, we believe we have a better chance of creating stable and stronger functioning markets in the region, ones that contribute to economic growth and improve the well-being of our communities.
Mr Molloy noted that “2010 is an important year for the development of the financial market in Laos, with the Lao Government planning to open the country’s first ever stock exchange in the near future. Equally significant developments are occurring in the other least developed EAS economies.”
“One way of measuring the success of this seminar is not having to leave today knowing that we have the answers to the many common challenges that we face but that we have been presented with various options and perspectives that we need to carefully consider tomorrow and where relevant to our respective economies, adapt and adopt to improve financial markets”, added Mr Williams.
Mr Molloy thanked the Governor of the Bank of Laos, HE Mr Phouphet, and the Lao SECO for their support and essential assistance in organising the event, as well as the representatives from the Australian Treasury who travelled to Vientiane to facilitate the seminar and workshop.