IMF | Capacity Development Office in Thailand

The IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department (APD) and the Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) held a High-Level Seminar on Climate Change Issues in Bangkok on December 12-13, 2023. The event was co-hosted by the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and jointly organized by the IMF’s Capacity Development Office in Thailand (CDOT) and the South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center (SARTTAC) in India. Generous financing for the event was provided by the government of Korea in support of peer-to-peer learning. The event catalyzed sharing of experiences among leaders of financial sectors on how to best address climate change-related challenges and how to find ways for closing gaps.

There were about 60 participants from 13 countries, including Governors and Deputy governors of Central Banks joined discussions. Governor of Bank of Thailand Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput delivered opening remarks. Krishna Srinivasan, Director of APD, and Tobias Adrian, Financial Counselor and Director of MCM, as well as other colleagues from MCM moderated peer learning sessions. Cheng Hoon Lim, Deputy Director, Statistics Department presented on the state of climate finance in Asian countries drawing from the recent departmental paper.

CDOT conducted a one-week regional training workshop on International Trade in Goods and Services (ITGS) at the Bank of Thailand. The Participants are the officials representing Cambodia, Lao, Nauru, Papa New Guinea, Samoa, Timor-Leste, Tonga, and Vietnam. The training focused on enhancing participants' capacity to compile sound International Trade in Goods and Services (ITGS) data for balance of payments statistics. The exercises were tailored to highlight regional issues, during which participants had the opportunity to discuss practical compilation approaches and challenges.

CDOT and the IMF Institute for Capacity Development (ICD) delivered a regional course on Monetary Policy at the Bank of Thailand training facilities. The workshop focused on the monetary policies under different foreign exchange regimes, central bank communications, unconventional monetary policies (UMP), policy coordination for financial stability, along with regional topics of monetary and foreign exchange regimes in ASEAN countries and post-COVID-19 policy challenges in Asia. The workshop also provided hands-on simulation exercises featuring multiple shocks and

scenario analyses to emulate monetary policy decision-making under different exchange rate settings. The group project modeled the post-Covid-19 economic developments and challenges and to propose effective policy responses guided by quantitative results. Participants were 35 officials from central banks and other agencies of Cambodia, Lao PDR, and Vietnam.