Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 29 co-chairs the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Country Strategic Dialogue on Vietnam 2021 via videoconference (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 29 co-chaired the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Country Strategic Dialogue on Vietnam 2021 for the first time via videoconference at the invitation of WEF Founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab.
Themed “Public Private Partnership - The Key Driver for Comprehensive Recovery and Sustainable, Resilient and Innovative Growth”, the dialogue saw the participation of WEF President Borge Brende, ministers and leaders of Vietnamese agencies along with 70 global and regional leaders of the world’s leading groups and businesses.
Opening the event, Schwab spoke highly of Vietnam’s quick implementation of vaccinations, while expressing his belief that the country will defeat the pandemic and continue maintaining its impressive growth momentum in the coming decades.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on October 29 co-chairs the dialogue from Hanoi (Photo: VNA)In his speech, PM Chinh affirmed Vietnam’s determination to recover and develop the economy, while emphasising that the government and businesses need to strengthen the public-private partnership to overcome difficulties in the context of the pandemic.
He highlighted the country’s socio-economic situation with improvements in October as the pandemic has been basically controlled and the economy has been re-opened step by step.
In ten monthsof this year, newly-registered FDI rose by 11.6 percent and over 15 billion USDwere disbursed. Exports went up 16.6 percent annually while the consumer priceindex inched up 1.81 percent, showing that the existing difficulties are onlytemporary. Vietnam’s potential, advantages, new driving force for long-termdevelopment and macro-economic foundations as well as major balances remain stable and solid, he said.
The PMstressed that Vietnam gives priority to restructuring its economy incombination with renewing growth model, improving productivity, quality, efficiency andself-resilience of the economy following the pandemic.
Based onVietnam’s development orientations, he called on investors to restore safe productionin industrial, economic, hi-tech and processing zones to maintain orders and supplychains, as well as invest in fields of Vietnam’s priority with specialincentives such as hi-tech, information technology and support industry.
The Prime Minister's speech received special and responsefrom business leaders. Many regional and global business heads highly valuedthe Vietnamese Government's decision to shift to safe adaptation to theepidemic. They acknowledged Vietnam's efforts in universal vaccination anddisease control as well as its support packages for firms and workers.
The foreign businesscommunity made numerous policy recommendations to revive and stimulate theeconomy, promote foreign direct investment, and improve domestic andcross-border goods transport connections.
Major technology corporations proposed policiesfor the promotion of public-private partnership to develop digitalinfrastructure, and encourage investment in digital transformation, andstrategies to take advantage of the 4th industrial revolution technology inCOVID-19 response and post-pandemic recovery.
In the field ofrenewable energy, an enterprise proposed that Vietnam set up a consultative energyforum with the participation of the private sector and the Government tostrengthen cooperation in this area.
Closing the dialogue, Schwab once again expressed his belief in the potential andposition of Vietnam. He pledged that the WEF will continue to give maximumcooperation and support to the Government of Vietnam.
The Country StrategicDialogue on Vietnam is one of the most important events in the WEF agenda in2021 to support global corporations to expand their investment and business,and anticipate new trends in the context of the global ecpnomy on the way torecovery.
It is also an importantevent for the Vietnamese Prime Minister to discuss directly with global businessleaders in order to mobilise all resources for the implementation of thecountry’s socio-economic recovery and development plans./.
