Promoting Economic Diplomacy to Seize Opportunities for National Development

At the recent conference “The Prime Minister with heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad on promoting economic diplomacy to foster economic growth in the last six months of 2024 and the following years”, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the imperative of intensifying economic diplomacy and strengthening both domestic and international engagements, aiming to proactively identify and capitalize on every potential cooperation opportunity to advance national development.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivers a keynote address at the gathering with heads of Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad

Focus of economic diplomacy in high-level foreign affairs

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, economic diplomacy in the first half of 2024 was systematically and effectively implemented, resulting in significant contributions to socioeconomic development. These contributions were highlighted in three main areas: Firstly, fostering a conducive international environment for national development and attracting additional resources for growth drivers. Secondly, bolstering growth drivers through the review and implementation of recently signed trade liberalization agreements, as well as the enhancement of existing agreements and proactive negotiation of new ones. Lastly, providing active support to localities and businesses by decisively addressing project obstacles through a service approach centered on the needs of the people, localities, and businesses.

In 36 high-level foreign affairs in the year to date, economics continues to be at the heart, with specific and substantive results. Many commitments and cooperation agreements with partners have been signed. The implementation of international commitments and agreements has been reviewed vigorously on a monthly meeting basis, with nearly 400 agreements concluded by central agencies and localities, helping accelerate implementation progress and remove obstacles.

Economic diplomacy has actively supported connection, promotion and advertising, helped remove trade barriers and stimulate new approaches like building Halal industries to expand the market for industries, fields, localities and businesses. In the first six months of 2024, Vietnam welcomed many large corporations such as NVIDIA, Apple, Intel, Google, Inforsys and Siemens among others from Northern Europe, the US, Canada, Japan and other markets.

Besides, the country continued to take full advantage of 16 free trade agreements (FTAs) signed with 60 partners, facilitate negotiations to upgrade many current FTAs and speed up FTA negotiations with new partners. It actively advised and fostered investment, attracting resources for the development of new, innovative industries.

In addition to achievements, attending delegates frankly admitted that economic diplomacy was sometimes not really sensitive and creative. Economic cooperation with some strategic areas was not yet commensurate with the framework of relations. The settlement and removal of obstacles in some projects were not actually drastic and thorough. Efforts to tap potential markets did not produce substantive outcomes.

Delegates proposed a cohesive strategy aimed at achieving consistent, effective and substantial implementation of high-level foreign affairs, including integrating economic and technological agendas, regularly reviewing and ensuring progress on commitments and agreements, and promoting growth drivers, particularly in science, technology and innovation. Moreover, they emphasized improving the quality of forecasting through research and consultation to enhance the government's socioeconomic management capabilities, focusing on emerging global and regional development trends. Additionally, there was an emphasis on strengthening coordination among central and local agencies and businesses, with a special focus on facilitating connections and support for businesses. Furthermore, there was a call to provide businesses with enhanced information regarding foreign countries' demand, cooperation potential, and economic policies and laws to bolster more practical and effective economic diplomacy efforts.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presides over the meeting with heads of Vietnamese diplomatic missions abroad, focusing on advancing economic diplomacy to accelerate the nation's economic growth for the latter half of 2024 and beyond

Grasping new trends early and from afar

On behalf of the government, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh commended and welcomed the contributions of overseas Vietnamese representative agencies, businesses and people to common national achievements, adding that Vietnamese representative agencies are more experienced, more drastic, more specific, more systematic, more professional and more effective in action. He expressed his pride and confidence that they will do even better in the coming time.

Experience is very important, he said. The more difficult the situation is, the more effort must be made. They must have high determination, strong endeavors and firm actions, with emphasis on clear definition of tasks, responsibility, time, output and performance. They must inspect, assess, urge and draw experience from lessons.

According to Prime Minister Chinh, Vietnam set a higher growth target for 2024 (6.5-7%) while continuing to speed up three strategic breakthroughs: Institutions, infrastructure and human resources. Besides, the country prioritizes growth, renews traditional driving forces (investment, export and consumption) and promotes new growth drivers (digital economy, green economy, circular economy, sharing economy, knowledge economy and emerging industries such as semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence and cloud computing), and uses innovation, science and technology as the driving force for development.

He requested that overseas Vietnamese representative agencies, together with the Party, State and people, focus on achieving the above goals and tasks; continue to maintain and promote existing development momentum and overcome shortcomings, limitations and inadequacies.

Accordingly, the agencies need to closely follow requirements of national development and needs of domestic businesses and localities, effectively link the world economy with the Vietnamese economy, connect foreign firms with Vietnamese companies, and bridge foreign localities with Vietnamese localities.

Representative agencies need to foster political and diplomatic relations to maintain a peaceful, stable, cooperative and developing environment; expand markets and promote economic cooperation, trade and investment, people-to-people exchange and tourism.

To boost export momentum, he also asked representative agencies to introduce Vietnamese goods and products of high quality and competitive prices to the world; further introduce Vietnam's business and investment environment, especially new policies, infrastructure development achievements and high-quality human resource training.

The Prime Minister noted that localities and enterprises should strengthen connections with representative agencies abroad, focus on developing, improving quality, exporting strong products, competitive products, products that the world needs and specialty products, meet development requirements, green transformation requirements of countries, and solve immediate and long-term problems.

Ministries and branches should perform well in their state management functions, orient development and planning, especially planning raw material areas in line with the world's development trends.

He directed relevant agencies to continue negotiating and signing FTAs and facilitating market expansion in the Middle East, South America, Africa and Halal countries; closely monitor trade defense measures applied by countries to Vietnam's export products to have early response measures; enable tourism recovery and research appropriate visa policies to further ease tourists; and take advantage of possible opportunities to export labor to other countries.

Overseas Vietnamese representative agencies, ministries, sectors and enterprises to concentrate on researching new and breakthrough solutions to attract investment and finance for development; soon grasp development trends, science and technology, experience and management skills to smooth technology transfer, train human resources and improve management capacity in a smart and modern manner, especially in emerging industries and fields, to “catch up, keep up and surpass.”

Prime Minister Chinh also requested them to maximize resources from the community of six million overseas Vietnamese, protect their legitimate and legal rights and interests in an active, effective and sharing manner so that they can live, work and study stably and conveniently, and contribute to the country.

Based on the proposals of central agencies, branches and localities, the government will continue to make efforts to better the investment and business cooperation environment so as to have better performance quarter by quarter, year by year and term by term of office. He emphasized the requirement for ready, close, timely and effective domestic and foreign coordination by firmly grasping the situation, closely following trends, resolutely implementing, taking creative actions and solving tasks according to their functions, tasks and powers. If beyond authority, they should report to competent authorities for consideration and decision.

Prime Minister Chinh assigned relevant agencies to promptly issue a concluding notice to this effect with the hope, that after the conference, economic diplomacy will be promoted, domestic and international connectivity will be stronger, more substantial and effective, all opportunities for cooperation in national development will be discovered and captured, and megatrends will be grasped early and from afar to bring specific results and practical benefits to the country, people and businesses.

By Bich Hanh, Vietnam Business Forum