20/08/2025 – On 12 August 2025, Viet Nam became the 18th member of the Asia Initiative by endorsing the Bali Declaration, a call to enhance the use of tax transparency for sustainable domestic resource mobilisation in Asia.
The Asia Initiative was launched in November 2021 by the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum), with the strong support of Indonesia’s Minister of Finance, Ms Sri Mulyani Indrawati, and the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Mr Masatsugu Asakawa. It aims at supporting the effective implementation and use of the tax transparency standards to fight tax evasion and other illicit financial flows, helping mobilise domestic resources and strengthen tax co-operation across the region.
“We are delighted to welcome Viet Nam as the 18th Asia Initiative member. By taking this step, Viet Nam is expanding opportunities for progress in implementing and benefiting from the standards of transparency and exchange of information,” said the Co-Chairs of the initiative Mr Hassan Zareer, Commissioner General of the Maldives Inland Revenue Authority, and Mr Eduard Hakobyan, Chairman of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia. “We are sure Viet Nam will benefit from the strong regional capacity building-programme established for the Asian region and further strengthen both regional and global co-operation between tax administrations to tackle tax evasion and other illicit financial flows.”
The Global Forum is the leading multilateral body mandated to ensure that jurisdictions around the world adhere to and effectively implement both the exchange of information on request standard and the standard for automatic exchange of financial account information. These objectives are achieved through a robust monitoring and peer review process. The Global Forum also runs an extensive capacity-building programme to support its members in implementing the standards and help tax authorities make the best use of cross-border information sharing channels.
The Global Forum’s worldwide capacity-building programme is supported by the following development partners, with a specific contribution from Japan to the Asia Initiative:
