Mekong is forever the flow of connection and innovation.

In its movement and development, the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) must continuously innovate and create, both to grasp the general trend of the world and to serve the specific development needs of the Subregion. It is time for the GMS to focus on developing new-generation economic corridors, with innovation at the center, going beyond the limits of traditional economic corridors.

These are extremely important messages that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered at the 8th GMS Summit, the 10th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Summit (ACMECS 10), and the 11th Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam Cooperation Summit (CLMV 11).

This shows that Vietnam's viewpoint and vision are completely consistent with the development flow of the world, as well as clearly defining the future development of the Mekong sub-region countries associated with the capacity for innovation, application of scientific and technological advances, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Towards a cohesive and developed Sub-region

Deeply aware of the far-reaching and multi-dimensional impacts of the trend of scientific and technological development and innovation, the 8th GMS Summit
The theme chosen was “Towards a better community through innovation-driven development”. With that spirit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conveyed important messages to the conference, that is, the world is entering an era of connection and integration, an era of science, technology and innovation.

At the 10th ACMECS Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the motto of “6 connections”: connection between thinking and action; between tradition and modernity; between rapid growth and sustainable development; between the nation and the region and the world; between the Government and the people and businesses; between stability and development and security assurance.

Therefore, it is necessary to make innovation a focus of GMS cooperation because this is an inevitable trend, a strategic choice, a top priority, and an objective requirement for rapid and sustainable development.

For his part, Chinese Premier Li Qiang emphasized that innovation is an important driving force of economic growth; China is ready to transfer the results of innovation, promote hard and soft infrastructure connectivity, promote sub-regional connectivity through policy connectivity, harmonization of standards, people-to-people exchanges, and travel facilitation...

At the 10th ACMECS Summit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the motto of “6 connections”: connection between thinking and action; between tradition and modernity; between rapid growth and sustainable development; between the nation and the region and the world; between the Government and the people and businesses; between stability and development and security assurance. In particular, the Prime Minister emphasized the need to value time, value intelligence, innovate to break through, be creative to reach far, integrate to move forward, and unite to gain strength.

Chinese Premier Li Qiang and other leaders were particularly impressed by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's speech: The Chinese have a saying: "Boarding together, advancing with the times". Our President Ho Chi Minh has a saying: "Knowing how to unite our efforts and hearts, no matter how difficult the task, we can complete it".

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also pointed out that in order to strengthen connectivity and promote the effectiveness of these cooperation mechanisms, it is important that countries closely coordinate and work together, as no single country can solve the problem. Lao Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, in his opening remarks at the 11th CLMV Summit, highly appreciated Vietnam's role and active, core contributions in promoting cooperation in this mechanism.

The Prime Minister emphasized the need to create a breakthrough for CLMV cooperation to catch up, progress together and rise up on the basis of promoting internal strength combined with external strength; only solidarity and cooperation can help the four CLMV countries overcome difficulties and together build a dynamic and sustainably developing CLMV region.

The profound and concise messages of the Vietnamese Government leaders at the above conferences received great agreement and response from the leaders. At the end of the conferences, the leaders shook hands and congratulated Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's speech, which was very clear, "correct and on point" in the focus of the conference, offering many suitable solutions based on Vietnam's practical experience, in line with the current development trend of the world.

What we clearly see is that leaders of all countries highly appreciate Vietnam's increasingly important role and position in the region and internationally; they all highly appreciate Vietnam's strategic position at the gateway to the ASEAN market as well as China; with a favorable location from Yunnan, if you want to export goods by sea, the closest and most convenient route is still to... Hai Phong port.

Therefore, with cooperation mechanisms such as GMS, ACMECS or CLMV, Vietnam plays a key role. Therefore, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh also emphasized the importance of enhancing connectivity of both hard and soft infrastructure for the region. In particular, it is necessary to promote the development of railway and road infrastructure systems, seaports; smart border gates, smart customs, simplifying customs clearance procedures...

Go deep, practical, effective

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip to China was warmly welcomed by Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang, leaders of Yunnan and Guangxi provinces and Chongqing city, as if they were family members who had not seen each other for a long time.

This is also an opportunity to further strengthen the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and China, which has been progressing very well in recent times, bringing the Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and the “Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future of Strategic Significance” to increasingly develop, deepen, comprehensively and sustainably; just as the great President Ho Chi Minh once said: “The close relationship between Vietnam and China is both comrades and brothers”.

More specifically, Kunming and Chongqing - the places the Prime Minister visited this time - are the places where the great President Ho Chi Minh, the national liberation hero, once carried out revolutionary activities during the years of searching for a way to save the country.

At the talks in the spirit of cooperation, trust and sincerity, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that Prime Minister Li Cuong should speed up cooperation in implementing three standard gauge railway lines: Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong, Lang Son-Hanoi and Mong Cai-Ha Long-Hai Phong; and asked China to support capital, technology transfer and human resource training in implementing these projects.

The Chinese business community is also looking forward to and expecting this working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. At the meeting with leaders of several Chinese corporations investing in the construction of railway, highway and energy infrastructure, we realized that Chinese infrastructure giants are eager to participate in Vietnam's strategic infrastructure investment projects.

Chairman of China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) Dai Hegen said that CRCC is making great efforts to coordinate with Vietnam to carry out the Pre-Feasibility Study Report of the Lao Cai-Hanoi-Hai Phong Railway Project connecting with Kunming (China), but he also said that if following the current normal procedures on both sides of Vietnam and China, the next steps of the project will not be on schedule; therefore, he hopes that the Vietnamese side will promote and shorten the procedural time, the Chinese Government will provide assistance in the feasibility study stage and assign specific tasks to CRCC to promote the project; striving to start the project in December 2025.

Agreeing with the recommendations of the CRCC leaders, the Prime Minister asked the Chinese side to support with preferential loans, transfer of modern technology, management capacity and human resource training to contribute to improving capacity and developing the railway industry...

Major Chinese energy corporations also expressed to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh their determination to further expand investment in Vietnam. With a total investment in Vietnam reaching 2.8 billion USD, China Huadian Group wishes to continue to increase its investment in Vietnam in areas such as wind power, green hydrogen, energy storage, upgrading the power system, improving power plant technology and enhancing energy efficiency.

Vice President of Energy China Zhang Deliang expressed his “great confidence in Vietnam” and said that the Group will continue to invest in renewable energy and clean energy in Vietnam. At the Vietnam-China Business Dialogue, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highlighted that the two countries have a very solid political foundation, similar cultural foundation, favorable legal foundation, and open market foundation.

Therefore, on the basis of the "Vietnam-China Community of Shared Future has strategic significance", we see the need for more investment and economic cooperation; calling on Chinese corporations and enterprises to increase investment in Vietnam.

It is rare that, like this working trip of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, two special art programs introducing and promoting Vietnamese culture, praising the solidarity and friendship between Vietnam and China are held twice in Kunming and Chongqing. Each time, the song “Vietnam-China” in two languages ​​is sung loudly, making the audiences of both countries very excited.

Perhaps, nothing is more complete than the cooperation motto that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh outlined at the Program to introduce Vietnamese culture and tourism: Close connection - Harmonious coordination - Extensive cooperation - Comprehensive coverage - Appropriate efficiency. This message was warmly welcomed by delegates from both countries with endless applause.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/mekong-mai-la-dong-chay-cua-ket-noi-doi-moi-sang-tao-post843925.html