Prime Minister: "Vietnam wants to be friends with the best"

The Vietnam Business Summit (VBS 2018) with the theme Vietnam: Trusted Business Partner, Connectivity and Innovation took place on the afternoon of September 13 in Hanoi. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, President of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Borger Brende, leaders of ministries, sectors and localities of Vietnam, and a large number of domestic and foreign enterprises attended.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that this is a great opportunity for international investors, ASEAN investors, and Vietnamese enterprises to exchange and share experiences, "connect and innovate" to open up new cooperation opportunities in the exciting belief of the 4.0 industrial revolution.

Speaking at the conference, Mr. Borger Brende emphasized that the achievements that Vietnam has made in the past 3 decades are very valuable. WEF reports show that Vietnam is making a lot of progress and the Government is trying to improve the situation. The biggest difficulty for Vietnam today is the challenge of the 4.0 industrial revolution. He said that countries that can take advantage of these factors will be successful in the future and Vietnam is a country that is trying very hard to develop.

"Trade is the third area where we see rapid and strong growth. We see Vietnam as one of the countries with the largest and strongest free trade government in the world; participating in many free trade agreements around the world. And the most recent example we give is CPTPP. The current government is also taking steps to reform state-owned enterprises, privatizing many state-owned enterprises, strengthening governance. The Vietnamese government is also taking good steps to simplify investment procedures in Vietnam," said Mr. Borger Brende.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc informed about 1,300 delegates, mainly domestic and international investors, an interesting piece of information, that according to statistics from the World Economic Forum, up to this morning (September 13), there have been over 6,000 articles about the WEF ASEAN Conference broadcast and posted on global networks and 3 million followers on Facebook and Twitter. This result shows the world's interest in the Conference, in the WEF and in Vietnam.

Announcing the good news, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told investors: "This is a great opportunity for international investors, ASEAN investors, and Vietnamese businesses to exchange and share experiences, "connect and innovate" to open up new cooperation opportunities in the spreading enthusiasm of the 4.0 industrial revolution. This can be considered a conference responding to the results of the World Economic Forum on ASEAN, orienting the future development of Vietnamese businesses."

Sharing about Vietnam's development orientation and perspective on integration, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that despite the rise of protectionism and trade wars in the world, Vietnam has consistently promoted the benefits of free trade and clearly recognized the open cooperation opportunities with the main flow being peace, cooperation and globalization.

Reiterating the theme of this Vietnam Business Summit as "Vietnam and the global value chain", the Prime Minister pointed out some of the realities that Vietnam faces, such as Vietnam has only about 21% of small and medium enterprises participating in the global value chain, much lower than the rate of 46% in countries in the ASEAN region. In particular, many Vietnamese enterprises only participate in the global value chain in simple stages such as product assembly and packaging. These are just low links in the supply chain, often with low added value and lacking sustainability.

Therefore, the important goal that Vietnam sets is to upgrade and move up the ladder of the global value chain, strengthening the connection between Vietnamese enterprises and FDI enterprises.

Along with that, the Prime Minister said: "Vietnam does not have the ambition to become the best in globalization, but Vietnam wants to be friends with the best. Vietnam has enough confidence to do that. At the same time, Vietnam has the aspiration to become a prosperous and developed country, which is a strong aspiration, not inferior to any country in the world."

The Prime Minister also informed about the opportunities for investors, that is, Vietnam is becoming one of the world's factories and a fulcrum for large transnational corporations to supply competitive products and services globally. Vietnam's trade openness is currently over 200% of GDP. Vietnam's political and social environment is always assessed as stable in the region and in the world, Vietnam's macroeconomic factors are maintained stably with continuous high growth; trade increases by an average of 15%/year; public debt and inflation are controlled...

After the impressive speeches, business leaders and investors asked many interesting and direct questions on issues of concern to both Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and World Economic Forum President Brende.

Ms. Ha Thu Thanh, Chairman of Deloitte Vietnam, asked Mr. Brende, Chairman of the World Economic Forum WEF:

Ms. Ha Thu Thanh:Vietnam is the first country that WEF has chosen as a partner under the public-private partnership model to help improve Vietnam's competitiveness. Could you tell us why WEF chose Vietnam and can you provide some more specific information for the Vietnamese business community to know?

Mr. Brende:Why did we choose Vietnam? I think in my speech I pointed out the extremely impressive results in the past few decades in Vietnam. Including poverty reduction, the process of industrial development into an exporting country; there are important steps for the future of Vietnam's manufacturing. And as the Prime Minister also emphasized, we need to have important steps to take because the world is changing very quickly with new technology and means that did not exist 20 years ago. Vietnam has shown great interest in WEF ASEAN in the past 3 days and wants to be a fast-growing country. If the two sides have such a document and why not promote it?!. In the past few days we have discussed a lot about cooperation between Vietnam and WEF, including the center on the 4.0 industrial revolution. So why not in Vietnam? That could also be the next step of cooperation between the two sides.

Meanwhile, Ms. Ginny Foote, CEO of Bays Global Consulting Company, is interested in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and hopes that the United States will also join this Agreement.She asked Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc:

Ms. Amcham:I am very interested in the CPTPP Agreement. Congratulations to Vietnam and other member countries for successfully ratifying the Agreement. I would like to ask the Prime Minister, what does Vietnam hope for the implementation and success of the CPTPP after the ratification process?

Prime minister:The CPTPP Agreement, if signed and implemented well, will help the development of the countries implementing the agreement. First, it will contribute to growth because we open up new development space for 11 countries. We will have many products, goods, and services that many countries require, so growth will increase and employment will be better addressed. The second thing we will achieve is that exports will increase, including many new markets, even existing free trade markets, many types of products and services will be opened to increase exports better. And the third effect is to promote domestic and foreign investment. Due to the need for development, many countries in the agreement will invest in Vietnam. Countries that have signed before are also more secure because of the large agreement. According to the agenda, at the National Assembly session this October, the Government will submit the CPTPP Agreement to the National Assembly for approval.

At the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and the Chairman of the World Economic Forum also directly answered a number of other questions, including the main issues on building e-Government, renewable energy development plans in Vietnam; cooperation opportunities between the Economic Forum and Vietnam, issues on WEF's support for Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in the context of the 4.0 industrial revolution.../.

Vu Dung