HÀ NỘI — ASEAN officials reviewed progress on sustainable finance initiatives and discuss measures to strengthen the regional financial integration during meetings on Monday in northern coastal city of Quảng Ninh.

The meetings included the ASEAN Steering Committee for Capacity Building Initiatives to Support ASEAN Financial Integration (SCCB) and the 11th meeting of the ASEAN Senior Level Committee on Financial Integration Task Force on Sustainable Finance (SLC-TF), jointly organised by the State Bank of Vietnam and Bank Indonesia.

The SCCB meeting reviewed progress on capacity-building to ASEAN financial integration, including tailored training, experience-sharing and study programmes among the region's central banks.

It also reviewed capacity-building programmes for the central banks of Cambodia, Laos and Việt Nam while updating the implementation of technical assistance and training programmes planned by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for 2026, as well as training programmes of the South East Asian Central Banks Research and Training Centre.

The meeting also reviewed progress on learning roadmaps for ASEAN working groups covering capital account liberalisation, capital market development, payment systems, financial services liberalisation, banking integration and financial inclusion.

The SLC-TF meeting focused on the next stage of ASEAN's sustainable finance agenda as the task force prepares for changes under Project Revive, an initiative to reform ASEAN's financial cooperation mechanisms.

Discussions covered the development of a common framework for climate-risk stress testing across ASEAN and implementation of the ASEAN taxonomy for sustainable finance, which provides a common regional reference for classifying economic activities according to their sustainability characteristics.

The discussions aim to ensure continuity in ASEAN's sustainable finance work and support further implementation of regional initiatives in the next phase of cooperation.

The 32nd SLC meeting, scheduled on September 15, will discuss macroeconomic and financial developments, key issues in ASEAN financial integration and matters related to the operations of central banks.

The meeting will also review progress and plans for Project Revive, as well as the implementation of the Philippines' economic priorities during its 2026 ASEAN chairmanship.

The meeting is also expected to exchange views on Singapore's priorities for the ASEAN financial track during its 2027 chairmanship. — VNS