State Bank of Vietnam supports expanding and updating its 2004 cooperation memorandum with the State Bank of Pakistan

The State Bank of Vietnam hosted a Pakistan Ministry of Commerce delegation led by Minister Jam Kamal Khan, with Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung highlighting the role of banking links in supporting bilateral trade and investment through smooth payment and remittance channels. He signalled support for widening and refreshing the 2004 memorandum of understanding between the State Bank of Vietnam and the State Bank of Pakistan, which currently focuses on legal information exchange and human resource training. Under the existing framework, the State Bank of Vietnam has sent staff to short-term programmes organised by the State Bank of Pakistan covering central banking operations and banking supervision. The discussion also covered Vietnam’s progress in banking digitalisation, including continued growth in digital payments, bank account ownership of more than 87% among adults, full digitisation of several basic banking services, and instances of credit institutions executing more than 90% of transactions through digital channels, alongside the use of biometrics in banking services. On currency operations, Vietnam’s polymer banknotes (issued since 2003 across six denominations from VND 10,000 to VND 500,000) and the National Banknote Printing Factory’s capacity expansion plans were presented, including current capacity of 2.07 billion impressions per year and a planned increase to 3.64 billion in 2026 and 4.47 billion in 2028. The Pakistan side indicated interest in learning from Vietnam’s experience in cashless payments and more secure, modern payment methods, and both sides envisaged follow-up exchanges, including study visits and online meetings; the delegation also toured the expanded and modernised National Banknote Printing Factory project.