Strengthening economic diplomacy to boost growth in the last 6 months of the year
On the evening of July 18, at the Hanoi bridge, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired an online conference with heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad on promoting economic diplomacy and boosting economic growth in the last 6 months of 2024 and the following years.
Attending were comrade Tran Luu Quang - Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Prime Minister; representatives of ministries, departments, branches, agencies, units and relevant enterprises.
At Nghe An bridge, co-chairs were comrades: Bui Dinh Long - Member of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Tran Khanh Thuc - Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs, representatives of relevant departments, branches and units.
Bright spot of economic diplomacy
Speaking at the opening of the conference, Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son informed about economic diplomacy in the first 6 months of 2024, tasks for the last 6 months of the year and the following period. The Minister emphasized that diplomatic activities and dialogues in the field of economic diplomacy have promptly resolved difficulties, promoted the development of our country's economic sectors, especially agricultural economy, innovation, science and technology, etc.
Every month, the Prime Minister holds rotating meetings with diplomatic agencies abroad to promote economic diplomacy and attract investment. Economic diplomacy is carried out systematically, helping Vietnam welcome many business delegations from all regions and continents to learn about and promote investment. The Government also strengthens negotiations to attract new FDI projects, focusing on the fields of semiconductor technology, digital economy, green economy, renewable energy, etc. At the same time, Vietnam also conducts multilateral diplomacy, and many countries highly appreciate Vietnam's economic diplomacy.
In addition, Vietnam combines economic diplomacy with cultural diplomacy; closely links with overseas Vietnamese in economic development investment and cultural exchange. The government also established working groups in charge of economic diplomacy, which work steadily and have many positive results.
In addition to the achieved results, the Minister of Foreign Affairs also pointed out 3 limitations and difficulties that need to be overcome. Regarding the orientation of economic diplomacy, in the face of the trend of multilateral and diversified world politics, including conflicts and fierce trade competition, Vietnam needs to take advantage of opportunities to connect and use external resources to serve development with 5 key tasks to promote the effectiveness of economic diplomacy in the coming time.
Focusing on the following contents: Synchronously and effectively deploying policy mechanisms to attract many investment projects to Vietnam. Continuing to promote the mechanism of urging, reviewing, actively resolving difficulties and obstacles, concretizing policy mechanisms to attract investment. Continuing to promote traditional growth drivers as well as growth of new industries; Speeding up FDI negotiations; Focusing on capturing information on world trade, guiding and supporting businesses to make timely and appropriate adjustments.
Issue a number of policy mechanisms, review and promptly resolve difficulties and shortcomings. Promote science and technology diplomacy. Promote international integration and linkages, prepare well for high-level diplomatic conferences with organizations around the world. Support capacity building, be sensitive in forecasting, and detect new issues and major trends in the world and regional economy.
Many recommendations to promote economic diplomacy
At the conference, there were many opinions expressed on the assessment of the world economic and political situation, the advantages and difficulties affecting the Vietnamese economy. From there, the delegates had many recommendations and proposed solutions to improve the effectiveness of economic diplomacy, promote cooperation to attract investment into Vietnam.
Specifically, representatives of many Vietnamese embassies abroad have made many practical proposals to promote economic cooperation and import-export between Vietnam and countries around the world. For example, the opinions of Mr. Pham Sao Mai - Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador of Vietnam to China; Mr. Pham Quang Hieu - Ambassador of Vietnam to Japan; Mr. Tran Van Tuan - Ambassador of Vietnam to Sweden; Mr. Hoang Anh Tuan - Consulate General of Vietnam in San Francisco. The conference also heard opinions from representatives of the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Information and Communications; Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry, National Innovation Center; opinions of leaders of Da Nang and Dong Nai provinces, etc.
Opinions focused on analyzing world economic and trade trends, proposing key solutions to promote the effectiveness of economic diplomacy such as: For the Chinese market, it is necessary to increase the number of export items; promote import protocols into China for agricultural products, quarantine and testing activities... Promote international cooperation in science and technology, artificial intelligence, high-tech agriculture, energy...
Many opinions from ministries, branches, localities, and enterprises such as VinGroup, Textile and Garment Association, and Logistics Enterprises Association also hope that the Government will pay more attention to promoting policies to attract investment in the green economy and circular economy; issue green policies to attract green investment...
Clearly assign people, tasks, and routes
In his concluding remarks at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged and commended the achievements in economic diplomacy in the first 6 months of 2024. Many economic indicators performed well, such as budget revenue and expenditure, ensuring electricity supply, economic growth, etc. These results were achieved thanks to the participation of the entire political system, businesses, people and international friends who accompanied and shared.
The Prime Minister noted some work contents in the coming time: grasping difficulties such as competition trends, the Covid-19 pandemic has not yet ended its consequences, the disruption of global production supply chains; logistics activities are also affected by political fluctuations, conflicts... "Currently, there are more difficulties and challenges than opportunities and advantages. Therefore, we must not be negligent, but must always prepare well for conditions, make more efforts, and have higher determination; work with key points, assign people, tasks, roadmaps, and products clearly; have assessment, inspection, acceptance, and evaluation" - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized.
The target for the last 6 months of the year is to strive for economic growth of 6.5 - 7%, because the first 6 months of the year reached 6.42%. The Prime Minister emphasized that in the coming time, the tasks that need to be carried out are: efforts will be made to focus on developing transport infrastructure, renovating and constructing railway lines, major ports, airports, etc. Promoting digital infrastructure, green infrastructure, infrastructure against climate change;... Determined to remove institutional obstacles; improve the quality of human resourcesquantityhigh, vocational skills to serve emerging industries.
In the long term, we will continue to promote three strategic breakthroughs, prioritizing growth. In particular, prioritizing growth requires renewing export promotion work, improving institutions; promoting economic, trade and investment cooperation, people-to-people exchanges, promoting tourism, etc. Promoting new growth drivers such as circular economy, green economy, digital economy, sharing economy, taking scientific and technological innovation as the foundation. Focus on calling for market investment for new growth drivers, completing the development goals set out in the National Party Congress resolution.
