Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh holds special policy dialogue at WEF Davos

According to a special correspondent of the Vietnam News Agency, within the framework of the 55th World Economic Forum in Davos, on the afternoon of January 21 (local time), Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and delivered a speech at the Special Policy Dialogue with the theme "Breakthrough to the Future: Vietnam's Vision on Innovation and Global Role".

The dialogue session was arranged by WEF as a highlight on the first official working day of the Conference and was one of five policy dialogue sessions with heads of state and government, who are assessed by WEF to have vision, influence and inspiration, held at this year's WEF Davos Conference. The dialogue session was broadcast live on WEF's major online platforms.

The dialogue between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and famous host, Editor-in-Chief of Financial Times Magazine Gillian Tett, conveyed a strong message about Vietnam as an attractive strategic choice for foreign investors in the context of major country competition and thanks to its economic development achievements over 40 years of innovation, its will and determination along with breakthrough development policies to seize opportunities in the smart era so that science and technology, innovation and digital transformation become resources to help Vietnam's economy achieve the goal of becoming a developed, high-income economy by 2045.

Assessing the current international context, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the smart era is an era of political stability, no war; rapid but sustainable economic development; the environment must be protected and no one is left behind. In particular, the smart era must go hand in hand with the development of intelligent intelligence and databases.

To prepare for the smart era, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam advocates promoting the improvement of institutions and laws, creating favorable conditions for all subjects to develop equally in a multi-sector economy, and determining that the development of artificial intelligence in Vietnam must be based on Vietnam's database. The newly issued Resolution 57 on the development of science and technology, innovation and digital transformation will create a strong push for investment in research and development.

The Vietnamese Government also focuses on ensuring intellectual property rights to create an equal legal framework for foreign investors in the technology sector. The Prime Minister shared that the Vietnamese Government has been making efforts to promote investment, mobilize social resources and businesses for the development of transport infrastructure and smart infrastructure, and is expected to complete the construction of the national data center in June 2025.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that although Vietnam is a disadvantaged country, has a low starting point, and has an economy in transition, with those efforts, Vietnam has become an important partner in research and development cooperation and an attractive investment destination for large global technology corporations such as Samsung, NVIDIA, etc.

Responding to a question about how Vietnam can balance relations with both the US and China in the context of strategic competition, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam is steadfast in its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization, and diversification; being a good friend, a reliable partner, and an active and responsible member of the international community.

Responding to concerns related to Vietnam's trade surplus with the US, the Prime Minister said that Vietnam is always ready to listen, discuss and resolve issues that partners are interested in; Vietnam wishes to promote its competitive advantages, increase imports and cooperate in areas where the US has strengths and Vietnam has needs such as aviation, high technology, etc.

Sharing Ms. Gillian Tett's comments on the challenges from climate change and ensuring the dual goals of economic development and environmental protection, the Prime Minister emphasized that as one of the countries most heavily affected by climate change and rising sea levels, Vietnam is strongly committed to bringing net emissions to zero and making efforts to promote green transformation and green production.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh happily shared some specific examples with widespread significance, such as the development of 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice to contribute to ensuring global food security and promoting green growth. Regarding the energy transition sector, the Prime Minister said that Vietnam is accelerating and making efforts to perfect its institutions to unlock resources for renewable energy development, and has begun a nuclear power project to ensure a clean energy supply for national development.

Concluding the Dialogue, Ms. Gillian Tett shared the opinions of foreign investors about Vietnam as an impressive country with the process of economic transformation over 4 decades of reform, maintaining strong growth momentum for a long time, attracting a large number of foreign direct investment projects, maintaining financial and monetary stability and economic growth rate of over 7% even in the context of a difficult world economy in 2024.

With the goal of double-digit growth in the coming time, Vietnam will become a model of development in the world. Ms. Gillian Tett highly appreciated the business community's sharing with the Vietnamese Government's commitment to the development and national interests, following the words of President Ho Chi Minh "digging mountains and filling seas, determination will make it happen".

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s messages were highly appreciated by the delegates attending. The success of the second consecutive year of the WEF policy dialogue contributed to consolidating the country’s role and international position, spreading the country’s great achievements in recent years, as well as the vision and development prospects of Vietnam in the new era, the era of national development.

VNA