Within the framework of STEP project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC), co-implementing by DID and Co-opBank, on October 21st, 2022 at Co-opBank’s Head Office, the Project Steering Committee held an annual meeting to evaluate the performance results in 2021-2022 and set out an implementation plan for 2022-2023.
Attending the meeting, on the donor side, Global Affairs Canada (GAC), were Mr. Brian Allemekinders – Counselor for Development Cooperation, Embassy of Canada, Co-chair of the Project Steering Committee, Ms. Lisa Moreau – First Secretary and Senior Development Officer of the Embassy of Canada. On behalf of DID, there were Mr. Jean Boisvert – Program Director in Canada and Mr. Claude Lafond – Project Director and experts and staff. On the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) side, there were representatives of Department III, Banking Supervision Agency, Department of International Cooperation and Department of Information Technology. On behalf of Co-opBank, there were Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan – Deputy General Director in charge of operations – Co-chair of the Steering Committee; Mr. Nguyen Thac Tam – Deputy General Director – Project Co-Director; Ms. Vu Thanh Hang – Standing member of the Board of Directors – member of the Steering Committee and representatives of relevant departments, departments and centers.
In the opening speech, Mr. Brian Allemekinders – Development Cooperation Counselor, Embassy of Canada – Co-chair of Steering Committee, shared that the STEP project is one of the largest technical assistance projects of the Canadian government in Vietnam, with the goal of strengthening financial inclusion in the agricultural and rural sector through capacity building for Co-opBank and the PCFs system. Mr. Brian Allemekinders highly appreciated the project’s efforts in 2021/2022 to overcome difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, especially the successful implementation of the first stage of the E-banking project, fast, safe, effective money transfer products and services at a reasonable cost to members of more than 700 member PCFs across the country.
In the meeting, Mr. Jean Boisvert- Programme Director reported on the activities implemented in 2021/2022. Accordingly, in the past year, the project has completed the Internal Audit toolkit part 2, internal audit template for the PCFs, the appraisal of new agricultural loans form…; implementing the E-Banking digital banking project in order to diversify and modernize the products and payment services at Co-opBank and the PCFs system.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Nguyen Thac Tam – Co-opBank’s Deputy CEO – Project Co-director said that in parallel with continuing to implement activities, the project is also studying solutions to ensure long-term and sustainable development of the products and tools designed by the project, and at the same time, replicate these solutions to the entire PCFs system.
In the meeting closing speech, Mr. Nguyen Minh Tuan – Co-opBank Deputy CEO in charge – Co-chairman of the Project Steering Committee highly appreciated the project results achieved in 2021-2022. He requested that the project will prioritize the implementation of IT solutions and digital transformation with the potential to provide modern financial services to the PCF system and its members.
Some images from the meeting:
