The meeting of ASEAN deputy financeministers and vice central bank governors opened in Nha Trang city ofthe central coast province of Khanh Hoa on April 5.

The meeting, under the chairmanship of Vietnamese Deputy FinanceMinister Tran Xuan Ha, is intended to prepare agenda items for ASEANfinancial cooperation to be presented to the 14th ASEAN FinanceMinisters Meeting slated for April 7 and 8 in Khanh Hoa.

The meeting discussed topics relating to the process of financial andmonetary integration through ASEAN’s working committees on capitalmarket development, financial services and capital accountliberalisation and financial cooperation initiatives such as insuranceand customs cooperation.

The participants discussed the initiative to sponsor ASEANinfrastructure, especially in cooperation with the World Bank to set upan infrastructure sponsorship network, as well as the Asian DevelopmentBank’s proposal to establish the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund to mobilisesources of capital for investing in regional infrastructure projects.

Regarding the framework of customs cooperation, the meeting agreed topresent for signing to ASEAN Finance Ministers the amended protocol onthe bloc’s harmonised tariff nomenclature so as to finalise tariffs andfacilitate the declaration of goods traded among member countries.

Regarding the initiative of financial cooperation between ASEAN andits partners, the Republic of Korea, Japan and China (ASEAN+3), themeeting discussed and reached consensus on the development of the AsianBond Markets Initiative (ABMI) and the Chiang Mai InitiativeMultilateralisation (CMIM). The results of the discussions will serve asa foundation for the meeting of ASEAN+3 deputy finance ministers andvice central bank governors to be held on April 6.

The participants agreed that the next meeting will be held in BruneiDarussalam in 2011./.