The Prime Minister chaired a conference with heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad on promoting economic diplomacy to serve national development in 2024 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
On the evening of April 2, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a conference with heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad on promoting economic diplomacy to serve national development in 2024.
The conference was held in person and online at the Government Headquarters with Vietnamese representative agencies abroad and People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities.
Attending the conference were Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang; ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, government agencies; leaders of ministries, branches, central agencies; Chairmen of People's Committees, leaders of provinces and centrally-run cities; leaders of business associations, industries and leaders of 94 Vietnamese representative agencies abroad.
The Prime Minister suggested some contents for the delegates to discuss - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
At the Conference, delegates focused on discussing, evaluating the results, summarizing the work that has been done and lessons learned in implementing economic diplomacy in the past time; analyzing and deeply evaluating the existing problems, limitations, and subjective causes; identifying appropriate, feasible, and practical tasks and solutions, both short-term and long-term, to strengthen and create breakthroughs for the key points of economic diplomacy in the coming time, making economic diplomacy a basic and central task of foreign affairs, becoming an important driving force serving the country's development as in the spirit of Directive No. 15 of the Secretariat, contributing to accelerating the country to successfully complete the 5-year socio-economic development plan 2021-2025.
According to Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, economic diplomacy has recently received close attention and direction from the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Ministers. In the past 18 months, the Prime Minister has chaired 5 economic diplomacy conferences (this is the 6th conference).
From 2023 to present, economic diplomacy has achieved three outstanding results: The institutionalization and organization of economic diplomacy have been deployed in a more timely and systematic manner; economic diplomacy continues to make an important contribution to maintaining a favorable foreign situation for national development; economic diplomacy directly contributes to the positive results of foreign economics and international economic integration and linkage.
According to Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son, from 2023 to present, economic diplomacy has achieved three outstanding results - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Trade surplus and realized FDI capital highest ever
Reports and opinions at the conference unanimously assessed and implemented Resolution No. 21/NQ-CP dated February 20, 2023 of the Government promulgating the Government's Action Program for the 2022-2026 period to implement Directive No. 15-CT/TW dated August 10, 2022 of the Secretariat on economic diplomacy to serve national development by 2030. Economic diplomacy has been comprehensively implemented by ministries, branches and localities, going into depth and substance, opening up new directions, being breakthroughs, making practical contributions to the country's socio-economic development.
In nearly 60 high-level foreign affairs activities from the beginning of 2023 to present by the leaders of our Party and State, economic content has become the focus, bringing about specific and substantive results and many commitments and economic cooperation agreements with partners have been established. In particular, the content of promoting the opening of export markets, increasing the attraction of resources in new fields such as green economy, energy conversion, high-tech agriculture, tourism, labor, etc. has been integrated into all high-level foreign affairs activities with major partners in Northeast Asia, Europe, North America, and potential partners in South Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. The work of mobilizing resources from the overseas intellectual and business community has been focused on and promoted.
Delegates focused on discussing, evaluating results, summarizing what has been done and lessons learned in implementing economic diplomacy in recent times - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Ministries, sectors, localities, and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad have stepped up promotion, advertising, accompanying, supporting, removing difficulties, and boosting investment and trade cooperation. Government leaders and ministries and sectors have actively met with foreign corporations to mobilize high-quality investment, develop a green economy, and promote the resolution of obstacles to ensure a favorable business environment.
Ministries, branches and representative agencies have increased support for localities and enterprises to participate in foreign affairs activities, organize promotional activities at home and abroad, connect with international partners, thereby expanding the market, mobilizing high-quality FDI investment, and attracting new-generation ODA. Information work on the situation and trends of the world economy, sharing international experiences to support localities and the business community in responding to new trends and regulations has been promoted.
Heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad speak at the Conference - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
At the same time, regularly monitor and warn about countries applying trade defense measures; protect the legitimate rights of Vietnamese enterprises abroad; lobby UNESCO to recognize natural and cultural heritages, increase the number of Vietnamese heritages recognized by UNESCO to 62 and promote heritages to promote tourism development in localities.
Ministries and sectors continue to coordinate in implementing 16 signed FTAs; promote negotiations on CEPA with the UAE, FTAs with EFTA, Mercosur...; actively lobby countries to recognize Vietnam's market economy status; proactively and actively participate and contribute responsibly and effectively to important multilateral economic cooperation mechanisms such as the United Nations, ASEAN, APEC, Mekong, G7, G77, WEF...; promote new initiatives and cooperation possibilities; advise on policies to participate in international economic linkage initiatives, ensuring national interests.
Economic diplomacy activities have contributed to bringing our country's total import-export turnover in 2023 to 683 billion USD, of which the trade surplus was about 28 billion USD, the highest ever; FDI attraction reached nearly 36.6 billion USD, an increase of 32.1% in the context of global trade and investment shrinking; realized FDI capital reached nearly 23.2 billion USD, the highest ever.
Delegates also frankly pointed out that, in addition to the achieved results, there are still some limitations and shortcomings in the implementation of economic diplomacy such as the concretization and utilization of established and upgraded relationship frameworks and commitments and agreements reached in the past are still limited and delayed in implementation. The resolution of outstanding problems with some partners is still prolonged and not yet finalized. The coordination between ministries, branches, localities and enterprises is sometimes not synchronous; the connectivity and regional linkages between localities are not high.
Minister Le Minh Hoan said he will work with agencies, with the participation of associations and businesses, to encourage businesses to strongly shift from the mindset of "itinerant trading" to longer-distance business - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Delegates proposed continuing to vigorously promote the implementation of commitments and agreements that have been reached; renewing traditional growth drivers, effectively exploiting new growth drivers; promoting international economic integration and linkages; improving the quality of research and advisory work serving economic management; strongly innovating in coordinating the implementation of economic diplomacy...
Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, Chairman of the Software and Information Technology Association, said that through working, many foreign partners have concluded that "Vietnam is the chosen country and Vietnamese human resources are chosen" to participate in the world's semiconductor ecosystem.
Analyzing the reasons, Mr. Khoa said that Vietnam currently has about 1 million IT engineers, including nearly 500,000 software engineers, ready to move to the fields of artificial intelligence and semiconductors. The semiconductor and IT industries globally are lacking resources, because most young people in countries strong in semiconductors are focusing on other fields such as finance, logistics, etc. On the other hand, the fields of AI, semiconductors, and chips will be the trend of the future.
He proposed "total diplomacy" for the semiconductor and artificial intelligence sectors; promoting connections with foreign universities to transfer programs and train human resources; building policies to attract FDI in semiconductors; and promoting communication of Vietnam's image associated with the semiconductor industry.
Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that he will work with agencies, with the participation of associations and businesses, to develop a strategy for developing agricultural markets to turn "products" into "commodities", encouraging businesses to strongly shift from the mindset of "trading on the go" to doing business on a longer-term basis.
Seize opportunities but do not take advantage of difficult partners
In his concluding remarks, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh first conveyed the greetings and congratulations of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to the delegates attending the meeting, hoping that the delegates, including heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, would continue to do their best for the country's development.
Basically agreeing with the reports and opinions at the Conference, the Prime Minister hoped and requested that the subjects continue to carry out tasks and activities in the spirit of 3 together: Listening and understanding together; sharing vision for action; working together, winning together, enjoying together and developing together.
The Prime Minister also requested the subjects to promote "3 developments": Promoting the country's position and strength to boost exports and attract investment; promoting national strength and the strength of the times, promoting economic diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, people-to-people exchanges, developing tourism; promoting the dynamism, creativity, flexibility, and intelligence of Vietnamese people to diversify markets, diversify supply chains, production chains, and maximize the effectiveness of science and technology, innovation, and startups in the current context.
Prime Minister: Economic diplomacy must have breakthroughs in 2024 - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
According to the Prime Minister, in the coming time, besides advantages, economic diplomacy will face many difficulties and challenges. Externally, the world economy is recovering slowly; geopolitical tensions are increasing; the trend of politicizing economic cooperation continues to spread; the situation of differentiation, fragmentation, and disruption of production chains and supply chains...
Domestically, inflationary pressure remains high; production and business in a number of industries and sectors still face difficulties and bottlenecks, especially in terms of markets, access to capital, and costs. High-quality human resources are still limited, especially for emerging industries and sectors. Administrative procedures in a number of sectors are still cumbersome; some mechanisms and policies are slow to be amended. Strategic infrastructure in a number of sectors is still limited…
The Prime Minister said that we must always maintain balance, "not be arrogant when winning, not be discouraged when losing", maintain our courage, calmness, perseverance, not be too intoxicated with victory and when things are going well, not panic or waver when facing difficulties and challenges, comply with and creatively apply the Party and State's guidelines, policies, and laws to suit the situation.
The Prime Minister requested to actively and proactively convey the message to international partners about the Government's open-minded spirit and commitment to ensuring a safe and attractive political, investment and business environment - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Believing that economic diplomacy needs to continue to serve the task of national development, while respecting the legitimate and legal interests of partners, the Prime Minister gave an example that currently, the prices of some agricultural products such as rice are good, so we must both seize the opportunity for sustainable development; listen, understand, and share with partners, not take advantage when partners are in difficulty; avoid rapid development, focus on building and preserving brands, improving product quality, with reasonable prices, not "eating quickly".
"At this time, Vietnamese products must strengthen their position and reputation. If the price is high, we can compete fairly but pay attention to humanity and business ethics. When they are in trouble and we do not share with our partners, then when we are in trouble, who will share with us? When doing business, both sides must benefit. Taking advantage of the partner's difficulties to "fish in troubled waters" is not the Vietnamese culture," said the Prime Minister.
Creating breakthroughs in attracting investment in new fields
The Prime Minister pointed out four major orientations for economic diplomacy in the coming time.
Firstly, well organize foreign affairs programs of high-level leaders and foreign affairs activities at all levels, making economic content continue to become a focus of foreign affairs activities. In particular, it is necessary to clearly identify specific and feasible products, projects, and plans for each partner to promote implementation.
Second, together renew traditional growth drivers (trade, investment, consumption), while promoting new growth drivers (digital economy, green economy, circular economy, sharing economy, knowledge economy), new and breakthrough fields (high technology, innovation, semiconductors, hydrogen, AI...).
Third, fully exploit the potential of the frameworks, the newly upgraded relations, and the signed free trade agreements. It is necessary to seriously review, monitor and promote the implementation of commitments with international partners.
Fourth, promote the mobilization of resources from more than 6 million overseas Vietnamese to serve the country's development. It is necessary to create more favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to contribute to the country's development process, becoming an important subject in implementing economic diplomacy in the coming time.
Regarding specific measures, the Prime Minister requested, firstly, to actively and proactively convey messages to international partners about the Government's receptive spirit and commitment to ensuring a safe and attractive political, investment and business environment in Vietnam.
Second, urge the implementation of signed international agreements and commitments. In the process of preparing periodic reports on the implementation of Directive 15 and Resolution 21 on economic diplomacy, ministries, branches and localities must quantify and clearly report on the specific results achieved. If there are difficulties, they must clearly identify recommendations for solutions and the competent authority to resolve them.
Third, strengthen economic, trade and investment relations with large and key markets and expand and diversify markets, focusing more on potential areas with much room for cooperation such as the UAE, the Middle East - Africa, the Halal market, etc.
Fourth, create breakthroughs in attracting investment in new fields such as semiconductors, AI, energy, etc.; promote and welcome delegations of business organizations and large corporations in the world to Vietnam; grasp and propose appropriate and timely handling of proposals from the business community, etc.
Fifth, organize a practical and effective Forum of Vietnamese Intellectuals and Experts Abroad together with the upcoming Conference of Overseas Vietnamese so that overseas Vietnamese experts and intellectuals can share and contribute to the country's development issues.
Sixth, improve the quality, sensitivity and timeliness of research, information and strategic advice, grasp trends and respond promptly to policies to serve socio-economic management; focus on new trends, policy adjustment trends and new priorities of partners, "what they need, not what we have".
"Economic diplomacy must have breakthroughs in 2024 with the spirit of: "Innovation in thinking, creativity in strategy, unity in perception and action; opportunities must be seized, obstacles must be resolved, solutions must be breakthroughs, implementation must be drastic, effective, focused, key and sustainable", the Prime Minister said.
According to baochinhphu.vn
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