Press Release No. 15/203

Press Release: IMF Technical Assistance Moves to Strengthen the Capacity of Officials in South East Asia on Macro-Financial Linkages and Diagnostics

May 8, 2015

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Technical Assistance Office for Lao P.D.R. and Myanmar (TAOLAM) in cooperation with the IMF’s Singapore Regional Training Institute (STI) organized a workshop from May 5-6 in Bangkok, Thailand, to help officials from Cambodia, Lao P.D.R, Myanmar and Vietnam build capacity in the areas of macro-financial linkages and diagnostics.

The workshop, funded by the Government of Korea, brought together officials from central banks, ministries of finance, planning and investment as well as IMF mission teams and resident representatives. Topics included operational aspects of macro-financial linkages, macro-financial vulnerability diagnostics, financial globalization and capital flows, and macro-prudential policies.

IMF speakers included Asia and Pacific Department Director Changyong Rhee, STI Director Julie Kozack, and STI Deputy Director Mangal Goswami, along with IMF mission teams and resident representatives of participating countries. Bank of Thailand Assistant Governor Chantavarn Sucharitakul and Bank of Korea Deputy Director-General Jung-Kwan Kim also participated in the workshop and shared their experiences.

Participants highlighted a number of key takeaways, including the importance of vigilant monitoring of credit growth and the value of close communication between relevant government agencies on macroeconomic and financial developments. Participants agreed that the collection and analysis of relevant data were essential to ensuring the maintenance of macro-financial stability.

“This workshop featured an innovative format which brought together IMF country teams and their official counterparts in an informal setting to consider the macro-financial challenges facing that are being faced by the countries involved”, said Susan Creane, TAOLAM Coordinator.

Background

TAOLAM, located in Bangkok, Thailand, was established in 2012 to support an expansion of technical assistance to the Lao PDR and Myanmar. Recently, TAOLAM has started to cover Cambodia and Vietnam as well. It provides capacity-building assistance in several core areas of expertise of the IMF: public financial management; monetary policy and operations; macro-fiscal analysis; and external and government finance statistics. Its activities are mainly supported by the Government of Japan and the Bank of Thailand.

Useful links:

IMF Technical Assistance

TAOLAM