Vietnam - US bilateral trade turnover increased about 250 times

The conference was jointly organized by the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi (AmCham) and the American Chamber of Commerce in Washington (US Chamber).

Attending the conference, which was held in both in-person and online formats, were US President's Special Envoy for Climate Change John Kerry, leaders of ministries, sectors, senior representatives of many large US corporations, associations, industries, and business communities of the two countries.

Speaking at the conference,Prime Minister Pham Minh ChinhFocus on 5 major contents: Vietnam's development in recent years and future development orientation; results and future of Vietnam - US relations; epidemic prevention and control, rapid recovery and sustainable development; green transformation, climate change adaptation; digital transformation.

Vietnam has received nearly 220 million doses of vaccine

Summarizing Vietnam's development process over the past years, the Prime Minister said that after more than 35 years of renovation, Vietnam has achieved great and historic achievements. Never before has the country had such a foundation, potential, position and international prestige as it does today.

The 13th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam sets the goal that by 2030, the 100th anniversary of the Party's founding, Vietnam will be a developing country with modern industry and high average income; by 2045, the 100th anniversary of the country's founding, Vietnam will become a developed country with high income.

The Head of Government said that, in parallel with Vietnam's strong development, after more than 26 years of normalization of relations (since 1995), the Vietnam - US bilateral relationship has developed very rapidly, achieving many good results in many fields.

In particular, the relationship between the two countries has made important developments in the economic field with the signing of the Bilateral Trade Agreement (2000); the United States approved Permanent Normal Trade Relations for Vietnam (2006); the two countries signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (2007); the establishment of the Vietnam - United States Comprehensive Partnership (2013)..., from 450 million USD in 1995 to more than 111 billion USD in 2021 (an increase of nearly 21 billion USD compared to 2020), despite the prolonged Covid-19 pandemic and complicated developments affecting the global supply chain. The United States became the second trading partner, with a trade turnover exceeding 100 billion USD with Vietnam. The United States is Vietnam's largest export market, while Vietnam has become the 9th largest trading partner of the United States.

Over the years, the United States has always been one of the largest investment partners in Vietnam, with nearly 1,150 active projects and a total registered investment capital of more than 10.3 billion USD, ranking 11th out of 141 economies investing in Vietnam.

"I am pleased with the results of Amcham's 2021 business investment survey, according to which nearly 80% of Amcham Vietnam members participating in the survey assessed very positively or positively the medium and long-term prospects in the Vietnamese market. The recent period once again affirmed the complementarity between the two economies of Vietnam and the United States and the dynamism of businesses in the two countries," the Prime Minister shared.

The Prime Minister said that so far, Vietnam has received nearly 220 million doses of vaccines, about half of which came from funding sources, including about 29 million doses from the United States. US businesses have also actively shared with Vietnam means and equipment for disease prevention and control. US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Vietnam during the difficult days due to the pandemic.

On behalf of the leaders of the Party, State and Government of Vietnam, the Prime Minister thanked the valuable assistance of the Government, people, businesses and investors of the United States to Vietnam in recent times in the work of preventing and fighting the epidemic.

Harmonious benefits, shared risks

The Prime Minister also said that up to now, Vietnam has shifted to safe and flexible adaptation, effectively controlled the epidemic, confidently reopened on the basis of practice and science, is recovering quickly and moving towards sustainable socio-economic development.

In the third quarter of 2021, Vietnam's GDP grew negatively but then grew positively at 5.22% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and the recovery momentum continued in the first months of 2022; exports and foreign investment attraction grew positively; the macro economy remained stable, major economic balances were ensured; social security was ensured for tens of millions of people.

Recently, although the Omicron variant has spread very quickly and the number of new cases in the community has increased, the epidemic situation has still been controlled as the number of cases, the rate of severe cases, and deaths have decreased sharply.

In the coming time, Vietnam will focus on effectively implementing the socio-economic recovery and development program (about 350,000 billion VND, equivalent to over 4% of GDP), focusing on opening the economy in conjunction with investment in improving healthcare capacity, disease prevention and control; ensuring social security, recovering the labor market and employment; supporting business recovery through deferring, exempting, and reducing taxes, fees, electricity and water, etc.; investing in infrastructure development with important, urgent projects with large spillover effects; allocating a portion of resources for issues that may arise.

In addition, the Head of Government also affirmed that Vietnam has identified climate change adaptation as one of the key and urgent tasks and has been very active and proactive in participating with the international community in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. Vietnam has seriously and promptly implemented its commitments through the establishment of the National Steering Committee at the end of December 2021 to implement the commitments at the COP26 Conference.

In addition, Vietnam focuses on digital transformation, aiming to build a digital government, digital citizens, develop a digital economy and digital society. This is an objective necessity in the current development trend.

According to the Prime Minister, these are also issues of great concern to the United States. The two sides have common interests, a good foundation for relations and both wish to develop relations between the two countries, so it is possible to believe that the two sides will succeed in resolving issues in line with world trends and the conditions and circumstances of the two countries, paying attention to each other's legitimate interests, resolving difficulties and challenges, promoting the continued development of relations between the two countries on the basis of "harmonious interests, shared risks", affection, sincerity, trust and efficiency.