PrimeMinister Nguyen Tan Dung made the remarks at a dialogue withentrepreneurs attending the 14th Asia-Europe Business Forum (AEBF) inthe Italian city of Milan on October 16.
Hesaid Vietnam is rapidly restructuring its economy and transformingits growth model. In addition, the country’s intensive and comprehensiveinternational integration efforts have helped Vietnam establishitself as an active player in Southeast Asia and a bridge betweencontinental and island ASEAN economies.
Thesedevelopments form a basis for Vietnam to increase its contributions toAsia-Europe connections and take part in the global value chain in adeeper manner, thus creating new and great opportunities for the twocontinents’ business communities to invest in Vietnam .
In his speech, PM Nguyen Tan Dung called upon Asian and Europeanenterprises to implement ASEM action programmes in order to facilitatetrade and investment, and support developing member states in copingwith non-traditional security challenges.
Thepotential economic links in Asia and the establishment of an ASEANCommunity in 2015 will launch a new phase of dynamic development forSoutheast Asia , he said.
By 2020, ASEAN will be apinnacle in the Asian-Pacific economic-trade network, once the FTAsbetween the bloc and its partners are ratified, an ASEAN framework for aregional comprehensive economic partnership is formed, theTrans-Pacific Partnership Agreement is signed, and negotiations on apost-2015 FTA between ASEAN and EU are resumed, he said.
The October 15-16 business forum was attended by a number of ASEMleaders, such as President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy,President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso, and theItalian, Japanese, and Malaysian Prime Ministers.
They highlighted the need to increase businesses’ roles in andcontribution to intercontinental links in the face of slow globaleconomic recovery.
The leaders also told thebusiness circle to support governments in increasing trade andinvestment flows; ensuring food, water and energy security; developinggreen technologies; and sustainably managing resources.
The 14 th AEBF, themed “Enhancing business relations to fostereconomic integration between Europe and Asia”, saw the presence ofabout 800 representatives of leading Asian and European groups,including Vietnamese companies such as the Vietnam Airlines Corporation,the National Oil and Gas Group, and the Bank for Investment andDevelopment of Vietnam.
The forum was part of the ongoing 10 th ASEM Summit currently taking place in Milan from October 16-17.-VNA