Hanoi, May 16, 2012 - The World Bank and the Ministry of Finance hosted an International Conference on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 on Public Debt Management to share international experience and help Vietnam strengthen public debt management.
The Conference was attended by senior policy makers from various ministries, agencies, and leaders across central and provincial government.
Conference participants heard about and discussed the role of sovereign debt in the current global economic crisis, institutional arrangements for sound debt management, sovereign credit rating processes, and specific country experiences with public debt management, from experts from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Thailand, India, Ireland and Standard Chartered Bank.
World Bank Country Director in Vietnam, Ms. Victoria Kwakwa, noted that “the global economic crisis has increased the challenges of managing sovereign debt in both developing and developed countries. Recent experiences show how strong policies and institutions can help countries mitigate risks of debt crisis. We hope that Senior Policymakers who attended today’s event, learnt from the experience of India, Ireland and Thailand on the need for responsible fiscal policy and sustainable debt dynamics for Vietnam.”
The Conference participants also shared experiences on how global economic and financial crises and mismanagement of domestic economy can lead to a rapid build-up of public debt. They noted that whilst there is no one recipe to mitigate risks of debt crisis, prudent fiscal policies and strengthened debt management have helped many countries to respond effectively to the most recent global and financial crisis.
