Training Course on Regional Economic and Financial Monitoring Opened in SNAI
Co-sponsored by AFDC and ADB, the international training course on Regional Economic and Financial Monitoring (REFM) was opened in SNAI on May 13th, 2013. 28 government officials from 15 developing countries in Asia participated in the training. Dr. Peng Runzhong, Director of AFDC, Mr. Hoe Yun Jeong, Senior Economist at the Office of Regional Economic Integration of ADB, and Professor Joshua Greene attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches respectively.
The training kicked off amid a welcoming speech by Mr. Hoe Yun Jeong, who introduced to all the participants the purpose, objective, background and structure of the REFM training initiative. According to him, the concept of an economic surveillance process was introduced by the ASEAN+3 Finance Ministers in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis to prevent a similar crisis from recurring. The ADB then started to build a program in collaboration with its partners to train mid-level officials from finance ministries and central banks in the region aiming to enhance the capacity of regional countries on economic and financial monitoring as part of efforts to support the regional surveillance process. That is how the REFM training program started and since its inception in 1999, it has trained a total of 530 mid-level officials across the region.
Professor Joshua Greene, on behalf of all the instructors who are going to teach the course in the next three weeks, then took floor from Mr. Jeong. As an expert in the field of macroeconomic analysis, he will focus on four aspects of macroeconomic accounts and analysis, namely, real sector, external sector, fiscal sector and monetary sector and share with participants his broad knowledge and practical experience in this regard during the first week of the training. Following him, many other outstanding experts including Mr. Mike Andrews, Mr. Lei Lei Song and Mr. Thiam Hee Ng will join the program and lend to participants their knowledge and expertise on macro-prudential regulation, financial crisis management, and vulnerability assessment in the second and third week of the training.
Dr. Peng Runzhong, on behalf of AFDC, the co-host of this program, welcomed participants who had travelled from far and near to attend this training program. He sent gratitude to ADB and AFDC team and all the experts for their support and dedication to the program. According to him, this is the second time AFDC collaborated with ADB to organize this particular REFM program following the first one in September 2012. Further on, he gave participants who came to Shanghai for the first time some updates on the economic and social developments of Shanghai and wished them a wonderful and fruitful stay in Shanghai.
Participants are keen to start their lives in SNAI in no time to seek for self-improvement in all respects; they all wish their three-week stay in China will be paid off in the most rewarding way.
