The Prime Minister's official visit to China has three very important meanings.

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu.

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu answers questions from the press before Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to China and attendance at the WEF Tianjin Conference.

Could you please assess the significance and importance of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's visit to China?

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu:China is a large country, a neighboring country sharing a border, a traditional socialist friend and has close relations with Vietnam.

This is Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s first official visit to China. The visit takes place in the context of 2023 being the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between the two countries. This visit has three very important meanings.

At the invitation of Premier of the State Council of the People's Republic of China Li Qiang and Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Klaus Schwab, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will pay an official visit to the People's Republic of China and attend the 14th WEF Pioneers Annual Meeting from June 25 to 28, 2023.

Firstly, this visit continues the tradition of high-level contacts and exchanges between the two countries. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to China and China's reception of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh demonstrate the importance that the two Parties and two countries attach to the Vietnam-China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership and their determination to develop this relationship to become more sustainable, stable and substantive.

Second, the visit is a very important new development, aiming to concretize and implement the substantive results of the extremely successful visit of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to China in November 2022, especially in the context of the regional and world economic downturn. This visit will focus on finding specific measures to promote economic and trade cooperation, especially the exchange of goods between the two countries' borders, between localities outside the country as well as finding ways to remove obstacles to promote the implementation of major infrastructure projects that still exist between the two countries.

Third, this visit will also contribute to enhancing political trust, promoting the search for solutions to remaining differences, including maritime issues, enhancing exchanges between people and localities on both sides, thereby contributing to making the relationship between the two countries more stable, more substantial and more sustainable, contributing to peace, stability and cooperation in the region and the world.

With the significance and importance of the visit and with the respect and active coordination with the Chinese side for the success of this visit, I believe that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh's official visit to China will be a great success and continue to contribute to the increasingly stable development of the relationship between the two Parties and the two countries of Vietnam and China, bringing practical benefits to the people and peace and stability to the region.

Deputy Minister, please tell us what Vietnam will contribute to the upcoming WEF Conference?

Permanent Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Minh Vu:The 14th World Economic Forum Pioneers Conference in Tianjin (WEF Tianjin) is an extremely important conference taking place in the context of a regional and global economic downturn and countries are seeking ways to promote new growth drivers for economic recovery.

The conference was attended by many government leaders and more than 1,000 businesses from around the world. The fact that Vietnam was one of four key government leaders invited to attend this conference shows the importance that WEF and the international business community attach to the position and role of the Vietnamese economy, as well as the determination to reform and open up the Vietnamese economy.

In the current difficult economic context, I believe that the participation of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, the Vietnamese high-ranking delegation and Vietnamese enterprises this time will contribute significantly to the overall success of the conference, including three aspects.

Firstly, Vietnam is a developing, transitioning and highly open economy. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh will call on the regional and global business community as well as governments in the current increasingly difficult context to strengthen cooperation, open up the market for trade and investment, actively support businesses and unlock resources to restore the economy which is currently on a downward trend.

Second, through this Conference, the Prime Minister will share experiences and learn from the experiences and lessons of other member economies as well as large enterprises in creating, activating and exploiting new growth drivers such as digital transformation, green transformation, energy transformation, and circular economic development to contribute to realizing rapid, sustainable, inclusive and innovative growth models based on science and technology and bringing many practical benefits to the people.

Third, through this very important Conference, with the participation of the Government and leading regional and international enterprises, the Prime Minister will call on the global business community to continue to pay attention and increase further investment in the Vietnamese market and the Vietnamese economy.

The Prime Minister will highlight the positions, potentials and advantages of the Vietnamese economy as well as the priority directions in economic development of the Vietnamese Government, especially priority areas to attract high-quality investment resources and leading enterprises to participate in mutually beneficial cooperation in areas such as green transformation, digital transformation, education, energy, science and technology development, circular economy development and digital economy.

In his speech at the conference, the Prime Minister will make a number of recommendations related to public-private partnership models, coordination models between the Government and enterprises, as well as measures to attract green and sustainable financial sources into the Vietnamese economy.

I believe that the contributions and participation of the Prime Minister and the high-ranking Vietnamese delegation will certainly bring about many very important results, contributing to the overall success of the conference./.