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| Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh visited Nvidia Technology Corporation in Silicon Valley (California) during his working trip to the US on September 18, 2023. (Photo: Nguyen Hong) |
6 main focuses
At the Conference on deploying foreign affairs and foreign investment in 2024 to serve socio-economic development held last week, Minister Bui Thanh Son stated that promoting important and historic achievements, creating new opportunities for development and enhancing the country's prestige and position achieved in 2023, foreign affairs and foreign investment will continue to contribute to the country's overall achievements.
In January 2024 alone, Vietnam successfully and effectively organized the Prime Minister's working trip to attend the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and officially visit Hungary and Romania; welcomed 5 high-level delegations (the delegations of the Presidents of Germany, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Prime Minister of Laos and the Chairman of the National Assembly of Bulgaria), with many important agreements signed, highly appreciated by high-ranking leaders.
The Minister informed that the Government determined that 2024 is a particularly important and decisive year to accelerate and create a breakthrough in successfully implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress and the 5-year Socio-Economic Development Strategy 2021-2025, towards the 14th Congress.
With the management theme of "Discipline, responsibility, proactiveness, accelerated innovation, sustainable efficiency", the Government proposed that the 2024 innovation work must focus on effectively exploiting new growth drivers (artificial intelligence - AI, semiconductors, digital economy, circular economy), renewing traditional growth drivers (expanding exports, increasing investment attraction) to serve 3 strategic breakthroughs.
Ms. Doan Phuong Lan, Director of the Department of Economic Synthesis, Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for Economic Reform, said that this year, economic reform will be implemented with the motto "a new spirit, a new mindset, a new methodology, a new approach, thereby promoting the economy".
The work of NGKT will focus on 6 main focuses: concretizing commitments with international partners; identifying resources to serve traditional growth drivers; developing new growth drivers; NGKT supporting industries, fields, localities, and enterprises; attracting resources in multimedia mechanisms; research, information, and strategic consulting.
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| Minister Bui Thanh Son chaired the Conference on implementing economic diplomacy in 2024 to serve socio-economic development in Hanoi on February 22. (Photo: Tuan Anh) |
Golden time for technology cooperation with the US
Sharing about the NGKT work from the beginning of the Washington DC bridge, Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Quoc Dung happily announced that the two countries' upgrading of relations to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has created a breakthrough, bringing positive changes to cooperation in high technology in general and semiconductors and AI in particular.
The Ambassador informed that recently, US business associations have paid special attention to Vietnam in the field of semiconductors and technology. Evidence is that at the end of 2023, many US semiconductor companies came to Vietnam to learn and survey the market. Mr. Jensen Huang, Chairman and CEO of Nvidia Corporation expressed his wish that Vietnam would be Nvidia's second home.
Or most recently, in January 2024, US Deputy Secretary of State Jose Fernandez visited Vietnam and reported that 15 energy and technology companies are interested and want to invest in Vietnam, with a capital of up to 8 billion USD.
On the Vietnamese side, according to Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Dung, the attention and strong direction of the Government and the proactiveness of businesses and localities have created a vibrant attraction in cooperation with the world's largest economy.
However, Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Dung recognized that there are still difficulties and obstacles. Vietnam currently does not have a strategy for developing the semiconductor and AI industries. This is what foreign enterprises need to have a basis for long-term construction and investment. Vietnam also lacks a one-stop agency for high technology, making it difficult for enterprises to find information and complete necessary procedures.
In parallel, Vietnam has not joined the Information Technology Agreement to have a common tax base in the technology sector, while many countries have joined this agreement. Infrastructure, human resources in semiconductors and AI are also issues that Vietnam is weak and lacking.
Assessing 2024 as a "golden opportunity" for Vietnam to make a breakthrough in semiconductor and AI cooperation with the US, Ambassador Nguyen Quoc Dung said, "There needs to be high consensus from the Government to ministries, sectors, and localities in developing semiconductors and AI; there needs to be consistency in the need to attract investment in the field; early completion of the semiconductor industry strategy and human resource development plan, having a global minimum tax policy; considering special regimes for US semiconductor technology enterprises".
Proactively remove difficulties for businesses
Laos is a special economic partner of Vietnam and has great potential to contribute to the country's growth, but cooperation between the two countries is not commensurate with the potential. Vietnamese Ambassador to Laos Nguyen Ba Hung commented that the main reason is that "Vietnamese enterprises face many difficulties when doing business and investing in Laos. Therefore, the Embassy determined that NGKT is a task to contribute to removing difficulties and obstacles for enterprises in the future".
In recent times, the Vietnamese Embassy in Laos has been proactive in high-level visits; proactively invited leaders of Lao ministries and branches to the Embassy to discuss in-depth cooperation opportunities; resolutely removed difficulties for important specific projects; and proactively approached large enterprises to invest in Laos.
“I expect that in the next 2 years, when Vietnam’s major projects officially operate in Laos, Vietnam’s investment in the neighboring country will not stop at more than 5 billion. To further strengthen cooperation, the two sides need to adjust existing trade agreements; create a breakthrough in economic relations between the two countries soon and make efforts to resolve difficulties and problems of businesses,” Ambassador Nguyen Ba Hung proposed.
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| The conference was attended by representatives of 94 Vietnamese representative agencies abroad via online format. (Photo: Tuan Anh) |
As for Denmark, Vietnamese Ambassador to Denmark Luong Thanh Nghi informed that Denmark always actively supports Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the supply chain serving the development of renewable energy. Danish enterprises have signed contracts with Vietnamese enterprises on the supply of materials and construction of foundation structures, worth up to 1 billion USD.
During the process of cooperation with the host country, Ambassador Luong Thanh Nghi found some limitations that need to be overcome. Therefore, to improve the effectiveness of NGKT work, the Ambassador recommended that Vietnam and Denmark should establish a focal point to regularly review areas of cooperation; establish an intergovernmental committee on economics, investment, trade and science and technology; and coordinate more closely between ministries and branches.
3 specific task groups
Welcoming the proposals and "orders" of the Ambassadors, Minister Bui Thanh Son emphasized 3 specific groups of tasks of the NGKT work this year, which are:
First , strengthen traditional growth drivers and effectively exploit new growth drivers.
Second , increase efficiency and innovation in research, consulting, and forecasting.
Third , improve the effectiveness of the NGKT work and the coordinating role of the NGKT Steering Committee.
To complete the above tasks, the Minister proposed focusing on the following contents: Focusing on promoting traditional growth drivers to expand export opportunities and attract high-quality investment; Reviewing, urging, and implementing international commitments and agreements in foreign affairs activities; Proactively researching, advising, evaluating, and forecasting the international economic situation.
At the same time, closely link the activities of NGKT with the development of localities and enterprises; Continue to effectively organize the dissemination, review, urging the implementation, preliminary and final summaries of the directive documents of the Party, Government, and Ministry on NGKT work...
The Minister hopes that heads of units and heads of representative agencies will closely follow the Government's socio-economic directives and management and the practical domestic needs of sectors, fields, localities and enterprises, focusing on mobilizing resources of the entire unit and representative agency in mobilizing resources to serve the 3 strategic breakthroughs, renewing traditional growth drivers and effectively exploiting new growth drivers. From there, NGKT will truly become a strong driving force for the country's rapid and sustainable development.
Assessing that the tasks set for foreign affairs in general and NGKT in particular in the coming time will be more difficult and arduous, Minister Bui Thanh Son emphasized the need to promote proactiveness, creativity, and innovation in thinking and working methods to be able to complete the tasks assigned by the Party, State and Government leaders to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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