ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors reiterated their joint commitment to maintaining financial stability and advancing financial integration against an uncertain economic outlook that could impact economic growth momentum in the ASEAN region. That was the key takeaway of the ASEAN Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting (AFMGM) hosted collaboratively by the Ministry of Finance and Bank Indonesia on 31st March 2023 in Nusa Dua, Bali. The meeting was attended by Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors from nine ASEAN countries (Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam), as well as representatives from six international organisations, namely the Asian Development Bank (ADB), ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Financial Supervisory Board (FSB), Bank for International Settlement (BIS) and World Bank.
At the meeting, Indonesia’s Finance Minister, Sri Mulyani Indrawati, conveyed the important and strategic role of ASEAN as the epicentrum of growth for the world. “We believe ASEAN must aim to be a region with robust, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth. Economic growth has and will always be the story of ASEAN. To ensure that this will be continuous, we must strengthen ASEAN capacity to respond to the previous challenges, but most importantly the current and new challenges that we are all seeing today and the expected challenges in the next twenty years,” conveyed Ministrer of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati. All of this highlights the importance of the theme of this year’s Chairmanship: ‘ASEAN Matters: Epicentrum of Growth’. With this theme, Indonesia would like to show that ASEAN remains relevant, strategic, and important, that ASEAN Matters. ‘Epicentrum of Growth’ means that Indonesia wants to make ASEAN the center of regional and world economic growth. Moreover, Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani emphasized that, “ASEAN remains a bright spot in the global economy where the region offers more promising prospects compared to a bleaker global outlook. This underlines the importance of strong collaboration and cooperation to contain the lingering risks that may pose threat to the regional economy”.
Download the full Joint Press Release here.
