Speaking at the forum, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his condolences to people in localities affected by floods.

This is the first large-scale event to promote local cooperation between Vietnam and Japan and is an important step to continue implementing the agreement between the two countries during the official visit to Vietnam by former Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru in April this year.

The Prime Minister welcomed the forum's theme "Accompanying Comprehensive Development - Creating a Sustainable Future" as having very practical and strategic significance, clearly demonstrating the spirit of sincerity, affection, trust, efficiency, win-win cooperation, accompanying development, and creating a future for peace , stability and prosperity of both countries, so that the bilateral relationship will increasingly blossom and bear fruit.

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Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the Vietnam-Japan local cooperation forum. Photo: Pham Cong

The Prime Minister summarized that after 2 years of upgrading the relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the relationship between the two countries has had many strong developments, demonstrated through 6 highlights.

In particular, bilateral relations achieved very positive growth in a number of important cooperation indicators such as two-way trade turnover increased by over 20%, investment capital from Japan to Vietnam increased by over 8 billion USD, the number of Vietnamese people in Japan increased by over 20%, and more than 10 local pairs signed many new cooperation documents.

In addition to the investment flow from Japan to Vietnam, more and more Vietnamese localities and enterprises are proactively investing and expanding operations in Japan, especially in the fields of digital transformation, trade, tourism, healthcare and labor connections.

With the theme "Accompanying comprehensive development - Creating a sustainable future", the forum is the first large-scale event to strengthen the connection between localities of Vietnam and Japan, carried out according to the agreement between the Prime Ministers of the two countries during the official visit to Vietnam by the Japanese Prime Minister in April 2025.

The event is even more meaningful as it is held exactly two years after the two countries upgraded their relationship to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia and the world (November 2023 - November 2025).

At the same time, this is the first national-level international cooperation event between Vietnamese localities and a partner country after Vietnam officially completed the arrangement of administrative units, merged provinces/cities and applied the two-level local government model from July 1.

Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae sent a congratulatory message to the forum.

Summarizing the situation in Vietnam, the Prime Minister said that the Government continues to focus on resolutely and synchronously implementing many groups of solutions in the spirit of "3 smarts": "open institutions, smooth infrastructure, smart governance and human resources".

By the end of 2025, Vietnam plans to complete 3,245 km of expressways and over 1,700 km of coastal roads; basically complete phase 1 of Long Thanh International Airport, and actively implement the project to build Gia Binh International Airport in the north (Bac Ninh province) with a capacity of tens of millions of passengers per year.

In addition, Vietnam is building a National Exhibition Center with a scale in the top 10 in the world, restarting the nuclear power project, focusing on completing and putting into use large power projects; and developing a synchronous and modern digital infrastructure.

6 major directions to strengthen cooperation

The Prime Minister suggested six major orientations for the two sides to strengthen cooperation, exchange and discussion at the forum.

Firstly, the two sides should be proactive and creative in promoting potentials and complementary factors between the two countries' localities to promote cooperation on the principle of "mutual benefit", "what one side needs, the other side has", for common prosperity.

Vietnam has localities that need capital, technology, and underdeveloped supporting industries; while Japan also has localities that are facing labor shortages, aging populations, and lack of growth momentum.

Therefore, the Prime Minister suggested that localities focus on discussing their potentials, strengths, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages. Each locality should identify 1-2 priority areas and spearheads of their locality, and strive to propose 2-3 specific cooperation initiatives/projects that can be implemented in the next 1-2 years.

Second, the Prime Minister suggested that localities of the two countries focus on listening to the opinions of businesses to proactively have preferential policies, creating a favorable environment for businesses of the two countries to connect and invest. At the same time, the two sides ensure that people must be the main beneficiaries of cooperation in the spirit of 3 more: "better jobs, higher income, better skills and working conditions".

Third, the Prime Minister suggested that the two sides discuss and propose specific initiatives to enhance cultural connections, tourism, people-to-people exchanges between the two countries in general and understanding between localities in particular.

Fourthly, the Prime Minister suggested that the two sides study and promote cooperation models on digital technology, AI, smart cities, startup incubators, research and development (R&D) centers, etc.; he hoped that the Japanese side would increase experience sharing and support for Vietnamese localities and enterprises in building an innovation ecosystem, promoting digital transformation in local governments, and improving policy-making and governance capacity in priority areas such as AI, mobile infrastructure, semiconductors, etc.

Fifth, the two sides exchanged and shared experiences and proposed specific cooperation projects on green infrastructure, urban flood prevention, waste and wastewater treatment, smart agriculture adapting to climate change, renewable energy, etc.

Sixth, the two countries should strengthen cooperation in training and supplement human resources for each other, in the context of Japan's labor shortage, while Vietnam is in the "golden population" period and adjusting policies to develop population, improve people's knowledge, train human resources, and foster talents.

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Forum scene. Photo: Pham Cong

The Prime Minister said that the Vietnamese Government welcomes and agrees with the statement made by Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi right after his election - "Work! Work! Work and Work!".

The Vietnamese Government pledges to continue to work harder, always accompanying Japanese localities and investors in the spirit of "3 together": Listening and understanding between enterprises, the State and the people; sharing vision and action to cooperate and support each other for rapid and sustainable development; working together, winning together, enjoying together, developing together, sharing joy, happiness and pride.

The Prime Minister believes that the first Vietnam-Japan Local Cooperation Forum will be an important milestone, a "new push", opening a promising and creative cooperation path between Vietnam and Japan, contributing to further developing bilateral relations under the motto "sincerity - affection - trust - substance - efficiency - mutual benefit".

This afternoon, at the Government headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Government leaders and the Government Office supported people affected by storms and floods.

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/thu-tuong-hop-tac-dia-phuong-viet-nam-nhat-ban-se-la-mot-cu-hich-moi-2466269.html