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No. 23/82/DKom

ASEAN countries are committed to increasing economic recovery efforts from the deleterious impact of Covid-19 and stimulating long-term economic growth by supporting digitalisation and more sustainable approaches.  That was the key takeaway of the 7^th Annual Meeting of ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors¹ convened virtually on 30^th March 2021.  Several other commitments were agreed at the meeting as follows:

1. Welcoming the swift and sizeable policy response amongst ASEAN member countries, including fiscal and monetary policies to recover the economy and maintain financial stability when confronting the Covid-19 pandemic.
2. Completing the work plan for the transition from the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Services (AFAS) towards the ASEAN Trade in Services Agreement (ATISA), which will ensure more substantive and meaningful commitments to open market access in the financial services sector as contained in the 9^th Protocol to be signed within the year as the final protocol before the transition to ATISA.
3. Preparing strategic measures towards intra-regional banking integration in the digital era by honing the ASEAN Banking Integration Framework (ABIF) guidelines.
4. Maintaining commitments to achieve a freer flow of capital in the ASEAN region by gradually removing restrictions, regular monitoring and conducting policy dialogue on capital accounts and enhancing HR capacity building efforts.
5. Promoting an enabling environment for regional payment linkages to facilitate trade, business and financial inclusion.
6. Developing an ASEAN Taxonomy for Sustainable Finance as the overarching guide for all ASEAN member states, complementing respective national sustainability initiatives and serving as ASEAN's common language for sustainable finance.
7. Supporting the ASEAN sustainable banking principles, which will serve as guiding principles to help ASEAN central banks develop further sustainable banking guidelines and tools aligned with each respective country's context.
8. Continuing to further promote financial inclusion in ASEAN, including monitoring and evaluation activities as well as developing guidelines for digital financial literacy initiatives.
9. Appreciating and supporting full operationalisation of the ASEAN Cybersecurity Resilience and Information Sharing Platform (CRISP), which allows information sharing amongst ASEAN central banks to combat cybersecurity threats and develop collaborative mitigation actions.

Several international organisations also presented their opinions at the meeting, namely the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), as well as other business organisations, such as the ASEAN Business Advisory Council, EU-ASEAN Business Council and US-ASEAN Business Council.

The Joint Statement of the 7^th ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting is available for download at the following link https://asean.org/2021/.

Jakarta, 31^st March 2021Head of Communication Department
Erwin Haryono
Executive Director
Information about Bank Indonesia

Tel. 021-131, Email: bicara@bi.go.id

¹The 7^th Joint Meeting of the ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (AFMGM) was convened under the chairmanship of Brunei Darussalam to discuss global and regional economic developments, the policy challenges facing ASEAN as well as economic cooperation in the region.  This year, the AFMGM meeting was held via video conference due to the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.