Increasing cooperation for a sustainable future

Attending the forum were Mr. Tran Van Tuan - Ambassador of Vietnam to the Kingdom of Sweden, concurrently serving as the Republic of Latvia; Ms. Camilla Mellander - Director General of Trade Policy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sweden; Mr. Le Khac Nam - Vice Chairman of Hai Phong City People's Committee; Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy - Director of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Head of the Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, concurrently serving as the Northern European market, along with many representatives of agencies, organizations and enterprises of Vietnam and Sweden.

Vietnam – Sweden Business Forum (Photo: Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, concurrently in charge of Northern Europe)

Increasing trade and investment cooperation after 55 years of establishing diplomatic relations

Speaking at the forum, Ambassador Tran Van Tuan emphasized that the forum is meaningful as it is held on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the National Day of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1945-2024) and the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Sweden (1969-2024). The Ambassador hopes that this Forum will bring practical results to help economic policy-making agencies and business communities of the two countries understand each other better, opening up many opportunities for cooperation in areas that are of interest to the world today: Digital Transformation, Energy Transformation and Innovation.

Ambassador Tran Van Tuan speaks at the forum (Photo: Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, concurrently in Northern Europe)

Ambassador Tran Van Tuan pointed out that Vietnam is a developing country with a population of about 100 million people, with an average GDP growth rate of 6.1% over the past 10 years, ranking among the 20 countries with the fastest economic growth rate in the world according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). International organizations also continue to highly appreciate Vietnam's growth potential in the coming time, in which the IMF, the World Bank (WB), and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) all forecast that Vietnam's economy will grow by about 6% in 2024 and from 6.2% to 6.5% in 2025.

It is worth noting that digital transformation, energy transformation and innovation are gradually becoming the main drivers of Vietnam's economic growth. According to calculations by the Ministry of Information and Communications of Vietnam, in 2023, the digital economy contributed 16.5% of GDP and had an annual growth rate of over 20%; the green economy associated with energy transformation, although only contributing about 2% of the country's total GDP, has a very fast growth rate, reaching about 10%/year. Thus, the digital transformation and green transformation sectors (including energy transformation) have a growth rate 2-4 times faster than Vietnam's GDP growth rate.

Vietnam is also considered to have great potential for digital transformation. Vietnam's digital economy is estimated to be worth about 220 billion USD by 2030, 72 million Vietnamese people are using the Internet, each Vietnamese person is spending an average of 288 USD/year on online shopping.

Vietnam also has many favorable conditions for developing renewable energy, especially wind energy. According to WB calculations, more than 39% of Vietnam's total area is estimated to have an average annual wind speed of over 6m/s at a height of 65m, equivalent to an electricity capacity of 512 GW.

Vietnam's economy is also gradually shifting to depth, based on the application of science - technology and innovation. Through the above policies, tasks and solutions, the Vietnamese Government is very determined and making efforts to restructure the economy, transforming the growth model towards relying mainly on science - technology, innovation, digital transformation, energy transformation, etc.

Vietnam and Sweden have a traditional friendship and equal and mutually beneficial cooperation with a history of 55 years. Over the past half century, Sweden has provided Vietnam with invaluable support and assistance, both spiritually and materially, in the struggle for national independence and reunification in the past, as well as in the current process of innovation, national construction and international integration. After the relationship between the two countries shifted to the stage of equal and mutually beneficial partnership in 2013, bilateral trade has developed positively. According to the General Department of Vietnam Customs, in 2023, the total import-export turnover between the two countries reached about 1.29 billion USD. In the first 6 months of 2024, this figure was 695.9 million USD (an increase of 11.6% over the same period in 2023). Sweden is currently Vietnam's largest trading partner in the Nordic region, while Vietnam is Sweden's largest import partner in Southeast Asia.

Regarding investment cooperation, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, as of June 2024, Sweden had 111 investment projects with a total registered capital of 742.65 million USD, ranking 29th out of 143 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. On the other hand, Vietnam also had its first investment project in Sweden with a total investment capital of about 5.2 million USD from 2019 to present.

Although certain results have been achieved, such trade and investment exchanges are still quite modest compared to the potential and good traditional relations between the two countries. The two countries still have a lot of room for development in many areas, including digital transformation, energy transformation and innovation. Vietnam has a large market and great demand, while Sweden has high scientific and technological level and many years of experience in these fields.

“We expect the Vietnam – Sweden Business Forum 2024 to become a useful exchange environment for experts, economic managers and businesses of the two countries, creating favorable conditions for extensive cooperation between the Vietnamese – Swedish business community in economics – trade – investment in general and in digital transformation, energy transformation, and innovation in particular” – Ambassador Tran Van Tuan expected.

Signing 4 important MOUs

Within the framework of the Forum, Mr. Le Khac Nam - Vice Chairman of Hai Phong City People's Committee and Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy, Trade Counselor, Head of Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Business Sweden Vietnam to establish a cooperation framework in promoting trade between Sweden and Vietnam. In addition, exchanging information related to business opportunities, trade policies, legal regulations and other data to support businesses of the two countries; supporting each other in trade missions and trade promotion events.

Signing MOUs within the framework of the forum (Photo: Vietnam Trade Office in Sweden, concurrently in charge of Northern Europe)

Another MOU was also signed by Commercial Counsellor Nguyen Thi Hoang Thuy with ARC Group – a global financial institution established in 2015, headquartered in Stockholm and with a strong presence in Asia. Accordingly, the two sides committed to promoting and developing trade relations between the two countries on the basis of mutual benefit, and expressed their desire to establish a cooperation framework to support the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade in organizing a delegation of Nordic businesses to attend the International Sourcing Fair held annually in Vietnam, in order to strengthen trade relations, promote Vietnam's export potential and promote economic cooperation between Vietnam and Nordic countries.

On this occasion, the Department of Industry and Trade of Hai Phong city signed a MOU with the port of Gothenburg (Sweden) on coordinating the development and expansion of logistics activities between the two sides; promoting import and export; sharing ideas and best practices towards a more sustainable logistics system and promoting further development in the field of logistics digitalization.

The fourth MOU within the framework of the forum was signed between the One Member Limited Liability Company and Saigon Newport Corporation (SNP) on cooperation in trade promotion, sharing experiences in digital transformation and green transformation, and cooperation in developing training programs to improve the quality of human resources in port operations and logistics services.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/dien-dan-doanh-nghiep-viet-nam-thuy-dien-gia-tang-hop-tac-vi-mot-tuong-lai-ben-vung-344047.html