Greater access to American innovation and technology

US President Joe Biden will visit Vietnam on September 10-11 at the invitation of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Promoting technology- and innovation-driven growth, expanding people-to-people ties througheducational exchanges and workforce development programs, combating climate change, and enhancing peace, prosperity, and stability in the region are the highlights of the US President’s visit to Vietnam.

In an interview with VietNamNet, Harvard University Public Policy Professor Thomas Patterson said that President Biden's visit will focus on economic issues and climate change. Among these issues, the economic issue is the most important. The United States seeks to strengthen economic ties with Vietnam. Vietnam also has a part in that connection. The United States is Vietnam's largest import market, and this growth rate has accelerated since the start of the US-China trade war. History and research show that close economic ties also tend to bind countries together in other ways. Strengthening economic ties is in the national interests of both countries.

Professor Thomas Patterson, co-founder of the Boston Global Forum, said that the United States is the world leader in technology and innovation. The advantage of greater access to American innovation and technology centers will bring great benefits to Vietnam through this visit.

Professor Thomas Patterson (left photo) and Professor Alex Sandy Pentland (right photo).

Vietnam's strengths are that Vietnamese people are very hard-working and have good character, especially Vietnamese people have a very entrepreneurial spirit. Moreover, Vietnam is a low-wage market compared to the United States, which is very attractive to American companies and businesses. The combination of the strengths of the two countries can bring great benefits to Vietnam's economic development.

Mr. Patterson emphasized that the enabling factor for the two countries to cooperate is the policy of the Vietnamese government. US companies are accustomed to operating in a system with few administrative barriers and always innovating. Changes in Vietnam's business policy will contribute to promoting the impact of deeper cooperation between the two countries on technology and innovation.

Professor of computer data science at MIT University, USA Alex Sandy Pentland commented that the US has an abundant source of intellectual capital in the fields of artificial intelligence and data, while Vietnam has a rapidly growing digital economy and a human resource of engineers and data scientists.

Pentland, who was named by Forbes as one of the world’s seven best data scientists and a member of the Board of Directors of the Michael Dukakis Institute for Leadership and Innovation and the Boston Global Forum, believes that the most successful path is for young Vietnamese engineers to spend time working at cutting-edge research labs like MIT. That way, they can not only learn best practices but also learn what other countries are doing, as well as build relationships with engineers in those countries.

From the General Secretary's phone call

President Biden's upcoming visit to Vietnam marks an important milestone in Vietnam-US relations, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership between the two countries (July 25, 2013 - July 25, 2023).

On July 25, 2013, Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang and President Obama agreed to upgrade their bilateral relationship to a comprehensive partnership. The agreement lists areas of cooperation: political and diplomatic relations, trade and economic relations, science and technology, education and training, environment and health, war legacy issues, defense and security, protection and promotion of human rights, culture, sports and tourism.

The two leaders emphasized the principles in the Vietnam-US Comprehensive Partnership, including respect for the United Nations Charter, international law, and each other's political systems, independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

During the high-level phone call on March 29 this year between General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and President Joe Biden, the two leaders expressed their pleasure at having the opportunity to discuss on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Vietnam - US Comprehensive Partnership, highly appreciated the positive and comprehensive development of the bilateral relationship in recent times and agreed to promote, develop and deepen bilateral relations, for the benefit of the two countries, peace, cooperation and development, and proposed to assign the competent agencies of the two sides to discuss specific contents to continue promoting the relationship in the coming time.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in a phone call with US President Joe Biden on the evening of March 29, 2023. Photo: VNA

Australian professor Carl Thayer, a scholar familiar with Vietnam, commented that the Biden administration aims to build a foundation for a decade-long comprehensive partnership. Vice President Kamala Harris and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin paid an official visit to Vietnam to begin discussions on enhancing bilateral capacity for the strategic partnership.

President Biden and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong spoke by phone and agreed to expand bilateral relations.

Since that phone call, three members of the US Cabinet have traveled to Vietnam for detailed negotiations – Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

“The visits by Presidents Obama and Biden illustrate the long-standing continuity of US policy to support Vietnam in implementing the legal and economic reforms needed to further integrate into the global economy,” Professor Thayer commented.

Also in the phone call on March 29 this year with President Biden, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong suggested that the two sides continue to expand and make economic, scientific and technological cooperation the focus and driving force for the relationship, implement defense and security cooperation agreements, attach importance to promoting harmonious and sustainable trade, cooperation to ensure supply chains, infrastructure and new areas such as logistics, digital economy, green transformation, and healthcare. At the same time, the two sides will promote cooperation in overcoming the consequences of war, UN peacekeeping, information exchange, crime prevention and control and other areas.

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong shakes hands with then US Vice President Joe Biden during his visit to the US in 2015 - Photo: Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs

The General Secretary asked the US to continue to facilitate the increase of Vietnamese students studying in the US, welcomed the construction of Fulbright University Vietnam into a high-quality training center in the region; thanked the US for its support for Vietnam in preventing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic, and asked the US to continue supporting Vietnam's efforts.

US President Joe Biden affirmed that Vietnam is an important partner, supporting an “independent, self-reliant and prosperous” Vietnam, reaffirming respect for Vietnam’s independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and political institutions, agreeing that respect is an important foundation of the bilateral relationship.

After 28 years since the official establishment of diplomatic relations and 10 years since the establishment of the Comprehensive Partnership, the two countries have achieved comprehensive and substantive development steps, increasingly going into depth, actively contributing to security, peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Since 1995, when the two countries normalized relations, bilateral trade has increased more than 300 times, from 450 million USD in 1995 to nearly 140 billion USD in 2022. The US is currently Vietnam's largest export market. Vietnam is also the 8th largest trading partner of the US and the ASEAN member country exporting the most to the US. Over the past 10 years, two-way trade turnover has increased more than 5 times, from 25 billion USD in 2012 to nearly 139 billion USD in 2022. The US has become the only and first market to exceed the 100 billion USD threshold in Vietnam's exports. Vietnam has risen to the position of the 7th largest trading partner of the US. Every year, there are 23,000 - 25,000 Vietnamese students studying in the US. American tourists remain in the top 5 in terms of international arrivals to Vietnam, reaching an average of 800,000 arrivals/year before the pandemic.

Lan Anh

Vietnamnet.vn