Before the Prime Minister's working trip to Poland, the Czech Republic, to attend the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and to work in Switzerland, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Hang gave an interview to the press about the contents related to the working trip.
- Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife, along with a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation, will pay an official visit to Poland and the Czech Republic, attend the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and work in Switzerland from January 16-22. Could you please share the purpose, meaning and importance of the working trip?
Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hang: At the invitation of Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Petr Fiala and Founder and Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Klaus Schwab, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and his wife, along with a high-ranking delegation of Vietnam, will pay an official visit to the Republic of Poland and the Czech Republic, attend the 55th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos (Switzerland) and hold bilateral meetings in Switzerland from January 16-23, 2025.
The working trip is of great significance, continuing to affirm Vietnam's foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization, diversification, proactiveness, and comprehensive, deep, and effective international integration.
The working trip will contribute to deepening our country's relations with important partners, further enhancing Vietnam's position, role and responsible contribution, conveying the message of the nation's determination and development aspirations, and maximizing international resources to serve the country's development goals.
From a bilateral perspective, the official visit to Poland and the Czech Republic and the working visit to Switzerland are important opportunities for us to promote deeper cooperation with countries as well as the Central Eastern European region and the EU, promote the role of a bridge between Poland and the Czech Republic and ASEAN, strengthen coordination in solving regional and global issues, and contribute to peace, stability, cooperation and sustainable development in each region and in the world.
For the Czech Republic and Poland, the visit is very special because it takes place on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Poland and the Czech Republic (February 1950 - February 2025).
These are two traditional friendly partners, countries that have always stood shoulder to shoulder, giving our people valuable, sincere and wholehearted support and assistance during the arduous years of struggle for independence and national reunification as well as in the cause of national development over the past decades.
Many projects across the country still mark the support and assistance of the country and people of Poland and the Czech Republic to Vietnam, such as the Vietnam-Poland Hospital in Nghe An, the Vietnam-Poland High School in Hanoi, the Vietnam-Czech Friendship Hospital, and the Hanoi Children's Cultural Palace.
With that valuable relationship as a foundation, during this visit, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the leaders of the countries will review the good achievements of cooperation over the past 75 years, set out major orientations, and create momentum to bring the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and the two countries to new heights.
The Prime Minister and senior leaders of the countries will discuss and agree on important measures to continuously strengthen political trust, enhance the strategic nature of cooperation contents, renew traditional cooperation areas such as economics-trade-investment, labor, education-training, culture, tourism, etc., create momentum and breakthroughs in potential and important areas such as defense, security, innovation, information technology, digital transformation, green transformation, renewable energy, transport connectivity, etc.
The Prime Minister's bilateral activities in Switzerland, a leading partner in the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), will contribute to strengthening political trust and deepening the Vietnam-Switzerland relationship, promoting the bilateral relationship to a new height, in line with the strengths and practically meeting the interests of the two countries, especially in the fields of financial cooperation, development of an international financial center in Vietnam, technology, innovation, etc.
From a multilateral perspective, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the 55th WEF Davos Conference with the theme “Cooperation in the Smart Age” which was highly anticipated by the WEF Board of Directors and the global business community. This is an important opportunity for the international community and large enterprises to directly discuss with the Prime Minister and leaders of ministries, sectors, localities and enterprises about development orientations, priorities and opportunities that Vietnam can bring to enterprises in the current period of profound world transformation.
The Prime Minister will convey important messages about Vietnam's determination, aspiration and vision towards strategic development goals in the next 20 years.
With in-depth exchanges at the Conference attended by more than 3,000 leaders of countries, international organizations and the world's leading corporations, we also promptly grasp the development trends of the times, the flows that are shaping the smart era, thereby building mechanisms, policies and measures to take advantage of opportunities and minimize negative impacts from new trends.
The Prime Minister will also chair many discussions on practical topics related to the current requirements of national development, especially the implementation of Resolution No. 57 of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science and technology development, innovation and national digital transformation.
Accordingly, the Prime Minister's working trip will open up many cooperation opportunities between Vietnam and leading countries and corporations in the world in key areas such as artificial intelligence, investment in innovation, high technology, AI application in smart manufacturing, development of an international financial center in Ho Chi Minh City, application of AI and new technologies in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries, etc.
The Prime Minister's working trip to attend the WEF Davos Conference is a multilateral foreign activity that opens a very exciting year of multilateral foreign affairs for Vietnam.
We believe that through this conference, Vietnam will continue to affirm its role as a reliable partner, an active, responsible and potential member of the international community in the smart era, towards a prosperous and sustainable future for humanity.
- Could you please tell us what are the outstanding achievements in the relations between Vietnam and Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland in recent times?
Deputy Minister Nguyen Minh Hang : Vietnam has had a traditional friendship and good multifaceted cooperation over the past 75 years with Poland and the Czech Republic. These were two of the first 10 countries in the world to recognize and establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam after we gained independence.
With Switzerland, the two countries have a history of cultivating relations and multifaceted cooperation over the past 50 years and Switzerland was one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam in 1971.
During the process of fighting for independence, national reunification, innovation, construction, development and international integration, Vietnam has always received good feelings and great and valuable support from these countries.
Looking back at history, right after the North achieved peace in 1954, traditional friends Poland and the Czech Republic helped us build many important projects to serve the national economy and people's livelihood, training thousands of experts with university and post-graduate degrees and tens of thousands of technical workers in many fields, who are valuable high-quality human resources for the cause of national construction and development.
Most recently, during the difficult period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Governments and people of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Switzerland have always shown their willingness to help and stand in solidarity with Vietnam, providing millions of doses of vaccines and dozens of tons of medical equipment, helping Vietnam overcome the pandemic and reopen and recover its economy. Recently, Switzerland sent experts to Vietnam and provided 1 million francs to support people affected by storm No. 3 (Yagi).
Over the years, the traditional friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Poland and the Czech Republic and the multifaceted friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Switzerland have continued to develop well. With Poland and the Czech Republic, political trust has been increasingly strengthened through delegation exchanges at all levels, including high-level ones.
Poland and the Czech Republic have actively supported Vietnam in developing comprehensive partnership and cooperation with the European Union (EU), especially in the process of negotiating, signing and ratifying the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). The Czech Republic is one of the first EU member states to ratify the Vietnam-EU Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).
Poland and the Czech Republic are Vietnam’s leading trade partners in the Central Eastern European region. Cooperation in areas such as defense and security, education and training, science and technology, culture, sports and tourism, and labor has developed positively.
People-to-people exchanges are maintained and enhanced. In 2025, Vietnam welcomed about 50,000 Polish tourists and about 25,000 Czech tourists to visit Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese community in Poland has about 25,000 people and in the Czech Republic about 100,000 people who have made positive contributions to the host country, to bilateral relations and are highly appreciated by the local government.
In particular, the Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic was recognized by the Czech State as the 14th ethnic minority in 2013 (the 3rd largest ethnic minority community in the Czech Republic, accounting for 1% of the population).
With Switzerland, over the years, the two sides have maintained regular delegation exchanges and high-level contacts, and closely coordinated at multilateral forums and international organizations such as the United Nations, ASEAN-Switzerland Sectoral Dialogue Partnership, etc.
The two sides are actively promoting negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
Economically, Switzerland is Vietnam's important trading partner in Europe and the 6th largest European investor in Vietnam with a total registered capital of about 2.1 billion USD.
Cooperation in areas such as education - training, science - technology and innovation, sustainable development, culture - tourism has great potential to be promoted. The relationship between the two countries is promoted through the friendship bridge of the Vietnamese community in Switzerland with about 10,000 people, always looking towards the homeland, the country and integrating, making positive contributions to the locality.
On the basis of good relations and open cooperation space, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's working trip is expected to promote the elevation of our relations with Poland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, creating a strong and breakthrough change in cooperation in all fields with our three important partners in Europe.
- Thank you very much, Deputy Minister!
Source: https://kinhtedothi.vn/thong-diep-quan-trong-trong-chuyen-cong-toc-chau-au-cua-thu-tuong.html
![[Photo] Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs Government Conference with localities on economic growth](https://vstatic.vietnam.vn/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/2/21/f34583484f2643a2a2b72168a0d64baa)
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