BoL, BoK end Lao banking cooperation programme

THE Bank of the Lao PDR (BoL) and the Bank of Korea (BoK) have agreed to share the outcomes of their seven monthprogramme – 2019 Bank of Korea-Knowledge Partnership Programme (BoK-KPP) – with interested parties.

Fol low i ng complet ion of the programme, which began in May, a seminar was held to disseminate the outcomes of t he project a nd of fer polic y recommendations.

BoL International Cooperation Department deputy director-general Chansouk Phommavanh and BoK international affairs deputy director-general Kee Sun-jang jointly addressed the final seminar of the 2019 BoK-KPP.

The seminar provided policy recommendations, including an action plan for the implementation of the project after collecting data, information and analysing the results from May to November.

Apart from the sharing of the report at the seminar, the impact of the monetary policy on the macro-economy in Laos, the outlook for shortterm and long-term financial markets, cross-country analysis, directions for money market development in Laos, and other topics were discussed.

The seminar, titled Money Market Development, was jointly organised by the two banks.

The BoL’s research team was led by BoL Monetary Policy Department deputy directorgeneral Vinekham Lounthone, who is also the deputy head of the 2019 BoK-KPP Research Team from the BoL, while the BoK-KPP was led by Kee, who is in charge of the Knowledge Pa r t n e r s h i p P r o g r a mme Team.

More than 40 participants from various departments of the BoL, representatives of BoK, South Korea’s Institute of International Development Cooperation (IIDC) and Lao state-owned commercial banks – Banque pour le Commerce Exterieur Lao Public, Lao Agricultural Promotion Bank and Lao Development Bank – attended the seminar.

The 2019 BoK-KPP’s final seminar was the last of the BoK-KPP’s consecutive programmes being held since 2015-2019 to provide capacity building for the BoL.

On the same day, the IIDC research team also held a Capacity-Building Training on Empirical Analysis Methodologies and Techniques for 15 participants – representatives of departments related to the BoL who were in charge of conducting empirical analysis for more efficient results.

The seminar was another crucial cornerstone reflecting mutual trust and support, as well as mutual commitment, to effectively implement the cooperation between the two countries and the two central banks.