The northern border-sharing province of Lang Son always has a strategic position in the country’s economy - society, security - defense and foreign affairs. In recent years, the province has made many important foreign affairs achievements to effectively contribute to the cause of national construction and development of the country. Our reporter has an exclusive interview with Ms. Trinh Tuyet Mai, Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Lang Son province.
The collaborative partnership between Lang Son province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of China has been progressively fortified, fostering a strong connection that yields productive benefits across various sectors
Can you tell us about Lang Son province’ outstanding achievements in foreign affairs in 2023?
In 2023, amid complicated and unpredictable global and regional developments, with the thorough grasp of Party and State foreign policy, foreign affairs continued to be firmly carried out by the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People's Council and the Provincial People's Committee with many flexible, practicable solutions, thus creating more motivations, attracting more resources for socioeconomic development goals, strengthening national defense and security, and maintaining national border sovereignty.
All levels and branches of the province regularly maintained and promoted friendly exchanges and cooperation with foreign localities, agencies and organizations through many external activities. Leaders of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People’s Council and the Provincial People’s Committee regularly sent letters of congratulations and greetings to leaders of foreign localities with cooperative relations with the province, ambassadors of partner countries and heads of international cooperation agencies in Vietnam on the occasion of holidays, the New Year and important anniversaries. Leaders of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People’s Committee took part in high-level State delegations visiting China and attending multilateral cooperation events.
The Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People’s Committee promoted effective friendly exchanges and cooperation programs and mechanisms with the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, conducted many high-level foreign affairs with Guangxi; facilitated agencies and border districts to increase exchanges and cooperation and maintain regular meeting and discussion mechanisms with corresponding agencies of Guangxi. Then, it helped strengthen friendly relations and boost cooperation in economics, border trade, transportation, health, education - training, border management, and cross-border crime prevention and combat.
The province actively implemented many foreign affairs to maintain, consolidate and expand cooperative relations with traditional friendship countries and important partners (such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, European countries and ASEAN countries).
Lang Son province increasingly attended events hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, localities, partners and organizations to contact, meet, introduce and promote local potential, strengths and needs for cooperation of the province to international friends, foreign representative agencies in Vietnam and foreign business organizations to mobilize external resources to support socioeconomic development and improve people's living standards.
In 2023, the Provincial Party Committee signed three cooperation agreements with the Guangxi Regional Party Committee, China. The Provincial People’s Committee and the Provincial People’s Council signed three international agreements with foreign partners and allowed provincial agencies to sign 10 international agreements. The signed cooperation agreements have been well enforced and helped socioeconomic development.
To further expand foreign affairs, active international integration and cooperation in the 2020 - 2025 period, how has Lang Son province directed its foreign affairs?
In 2024, Lang Son province has continued to focus on carrying out three strategic breakthroughs and three key economic programs: Rapidly developing Dong Dang - Lang Son Border Gate Economic Zone; restructuring agriculture with new rural construction; and developing socioeconomic infrastructure, with a focus on transport infrastructure. The province continued to determine the task of effectively strengthening and implementing foreign affairs on all three pillars of party diplomacy, state diplomacy and people's diplomacy to serve socioeconomic development goals, effectively carry out three strategic breakthroughs and three key economic programs mentioned above. The province has reinforced and developed friendly relations, exchanges and cooperation with the province’s partners; unlocked local potential advantages; actively integrated and utilized favorable domestic and international conditions to develop Lang Son quickly, sustainably and comprehensively, and improve people’s lives; ensured national defense and security, maintained national border sovereignty and territory; and enhanced and promoted the position and image of Lang Son province to the world.
Could you please tell us about key foreign tasks in 2024 to expand foreign relations and enhance Lang Son's position?
Given Vietnam’s increasingly intensive international integration, thoroughly grasping Party and State guidelines and policies on foreign affairs and international integration, the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial People’s Council and the Provincial People’s Committee have specially focused and directed all levels and sectors to actively, effectively, synchronously and comprehensively carry out all three pillars of Party diplomacy, State diplomacy and people-to-people diplomacy to advance international integration, capture favorable international conditions, utilize potential advantages of a border-sharing province with 231.74km of border and a gateway between Vietnam and ASEAN countries with China. To execute these policies, the Lang Son Department of Foreign Affairs set out the following specific tasks:
First, strengthening connections and fostering international cooperation: Maintaining, developing and expanding effective and substantive friendly relations with the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, other localities in China and strategic partners in the region and around the world; establishing and maintaining relationships with foreign localities and agencies and international economic and financial organizations to take advantage of resources in terms of capital, technology, management skills and expand export markets for local key products; and enhancing connections, negotiations and signing of international agreements, concretizing and effectively implementing signed international cooperation agreements.
Second, focusing on foreign economic relations and international integration: Further promoting trade and tourism, attracting investment capital, organizing trade promotion activities and supporting businesses to advertise and introduce products to expand markets and attend major domestic and foreign investment promotion events to woo investors to the province; reforming methods of promoting and attracting FDI, ODA and NGO capital into the province; enticing more investment resources into Dong Dang - Lang Son Border Gate Economic Zone, industrial zones and key tourist areas of the province; actively seeking partners and markets for the province's key products such as anise, cinnamon, tea, black jelly, chili, custard apple, pine and acacia; increasing foreign affairs to boost border trade, simplifying customs clearance of imported and exported goods; strengthening international cooperation to support transformation of agricultural development models, sustainable tourism, planning and smart urban areas; stepping up digital transformation, economic integration, adaptation to climate change, green development, biodiversity protection towards stronger connection with global value-added chains.
Third, keeping good border foreign affairs to manage and firmly protect territorial border sovereignty and build a border of peace, friendship, cooperation and development.
Fourth, personnel building: Allocating resources and enhancing personnel training for foreign affairs and national border management; actively connecting with agencies of the Central Foreign Relations Committee, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and foreign partners of the province to mobilize the fund for training programs on foreign affairs and international integration; speeding up international cooperation in professional training and capacity-building for civil servants to meet requirements in the new context.
Thank you very much!
By Duy Binh, Vietnam Business Forum
Vietnamese
October 2024
Hanoi