Videoconference Seminar Series on Economic Crisis (II)
On April 16, 2009, a distance learning seminar on How to Survive the Economic Crisis: Challenges toward Fiscal Policy, co-organized by AFDC and the World Bank was held. Over 100 participants gathering at 9 Distance Learning Centers in
The seminar started with Lead Economist of the World Bank Mr. Ardo Hansson’s presentation on Fiscal Policy for the Crisis: Effectiveness, Constraints and Impacts. He briefly talked about the broad impacts of the crisis and then discussed the constraints on fiscal policy responses before considering designing a fiscal policy response for three types of countries with different fiscal space for maneuver. Following his presentation, Dr. Jia Kang, Director General of Research Institute for Fiscal Science, the Ministry of Finance of China, Dr. Do Duc Minh, Vice Director of Institute of Financial Training, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, and Dr. Naron, Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of Cambodia, provided country-specific case analysis of fiscal policies adopted by China, Vietnam and Cambodia. They all stressed that during this economic downturn, greater efforts should be made to increase spending on various programs in relation to health, education, social safety net, agriculture, infrastructure, capacity building, etc. Meanwhile, more efforts should be directed toward tax cut and taxation reform. In the discussion session, participants raised lots of questions regarding how to successfully boost consumption, how to cut tax, how to redistribute income between low-income groups and high-income groups, how to prevent export from further declining, how to control the risks of rising government deficits, how to combat protectionism and promote trade financing, etc.
As Dr. Li
