According to a special correspondent of the Vietnam News Agency, during his participation in the G20 Summit and bilateral activities in South Africa, on the morning of November 21 in Johannesburg, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh worked with South African organizations and businesses to promote cooperation in the economic field.
Receiving Vice President of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry Neil Pollock, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the relationship between the two countries is developing very well and is expected to reach new heights; he asked the business community to contribute to promoting the relationship between the two countries in the spirit of a creative State, pioneering enterprises, public-private partnership, national development, and people prosperity and happiness.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam is prioritizing macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, ensuring major balances, and ensuring the foundation for rapid and sustainable growth; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2025 is expected to grow by about 8% and double digits in the following years.
In particular, Vietnam promotes public-private cooperation, considering the private economy as the most important driving force of the national economy; focuses on promoting 3 strategic breakthroughs (turning institutions into national competitive advantages, infrastructure breakthroughs and governance and human resource training breakthroughs); transforming the growth model based on science and technology, innovation, digital transformation...
Currently, South Africa is Vietnam's largest trading partner and export market in Africa. Total bilateral trade turnover in 2024 will reach 1.72 billion USD.
On the basis of good political relations and the huge room for economic cooperation between the two countries, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh invited leaders of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry and businesses to visit Vietnam soon to witness Vietnam's development, encourage and call on South African businesses to invest in Vietnam, and Vietnam also encourages businesses to invest in South Africa.
Vietnam is ready to welcome South African investors to exchange experiences, promote economic, trade and investment relations to become more in-depth, substantial, diverse, effective, and mutually beneficial, with the spirit of "giving is forever" as stated by Mr. Neil Pollock, especially investing in areas where both sides have potential and strengths such as agricultural production, mining, oil and gas; exchanging Vietnam's strong products such as electronics, textiles, footwear, fruits, etc.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam has 17 Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with more than 60 leading economies in the world; has agricultural strengths, such as having a rice variety that has won the world's best rice award three times; Vietnamese enterprises can invest in South Africa and export on the spot, thereby supporting food security for South Africa and exploiting the African market of more than 1 billion people.
For his part, Vice President of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry Neil Pollock highly appreciated Vietnam's growth rate and strong development in the context of regional and global instability; and also appreciated the leadership role of the two countries in turning commitments into actions.
He also said that the two countries share many common values in culture and history; Vietnam has strengths in agricultural products, especially Vietnamese rice which is “the best in the world” while South Africa uses more and more rice. The two countries also have great potential to promote tourism, he said that if you want to understand Asian culture, you have to come to Vietnam.
Mr. Neil Pollock affirmed that South Africa can learn many lessons from Vietnam's experience and South African businesses can also learn from Vietnamese businesses.
He suggested that the two governments strengthen connectivity, South African businesses will contribute to promoting economic, trade and investment relations, and is ready to work with Vietnamese partners, exploiting the remaining great opportunities for mutual development and believes that this process will be very quick.
Receiving Ms. Brenda Moagi, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Ms. Sesakho Magadla, CEO of the South African National Petroleum Company, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that during this visit to South Africa, the two countries are expected to upgrade their relationship to a new level and the good political relationship between the two countries is the foundation for promoting economic cooperation, in which oil and gas and energy cooperation plays an important role in the rapid and sustainable development process of each country.
Appreciating South Africa's establishment of the National Oil and Gas Company last May - marking a new development step in South Africa's energy industry, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the Vietnam National Energy Industry Group (PVN) is the key unit in the fields of industry, energy and oil and gas services in Vietnam.
PVN has extensive experience and is implementing the entire oil and gas value chain, including exploration, exploitation, processing, transportation, storage, distribution and provision of oil and gas technical services; at the same time, it is actively promoting energy transition, focusing on developing new energy sources such as green hydrogen, offshore wind power and liquefied natural gas (LNG)...
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh proposed that the South African National Oil and Gas Company cooperate with PVN in potential fields, especially offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation, petrochemical refining, oil and gas services, energy industry development, wind and solar power, investment linkages in potential areas, and human resource training.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh invited the Company's leaders to visit Vietnam, work specifically with partners and reach agreements to implement cooperation.
For his part, the leader of the South African National Oil and Gas Company said he was very interested and ready to cooperate with Vietnam, welcomed the proposals of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and would discuss specifically with PVN, moving towards signing a memorandum of understanding for quick, sustainable, and mutually beneficial cooperation.
Noting that South Africa has a power grid connected to the region, Ms. Brenda Moagi shared that the two sides have a lot of potential for cooperation, in which offshore wind power and oil and gas exploitation are areas that can cooperate immediately; and PVN's support is very necessary for the South African National Petroleum Company.
Working with Mr. De Villiers Engelbrecht, CEO of Airlink airline, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assessed that currently, the cooperation relationship between Vietnam and South Africa is developing strongly in the fields of politics, economics, trade and tourism, but the two countries still lack direct flights.
Cooperation in expanding flight routes and aviation markets is of great significance to promoting trade, investment, people-to-people exchange, tourism, freight transport, e-commerce, etc. between the two countries.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that Vietnam's aviation market is growing rapidly, with the total Vietnamese aviation transport market expected to reach about 85 million passengers in 2025, a growth of about 11% compared to 2024.
The market currently has 6 Vietnamese airlines (Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, VietJet Air, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines, Sun Phu Quoc Airways).
Vietnam is also focusing on developing the airport/port infrastructure system to meet the market development, especially Long Thanh airport, which is expected to complete phase 1 by the end of 2025, and Gia Binh airport, which will be completed in the coming years, both of which are large-scale, aiming to turn Vietnam into a regional aviation gateway with a scale of up to 100 million passengers/year and millions of tons of cargo/year.
According to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, South Africa is the gateway to Africa; Vietnam is the gateway to Asia, Southeast Asia, within a radius of about 5-6 hours flight is the region that accounts for about 50% of the world's population and 60% of global GDP.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that, based on experience in exploiting the flight network, Airlink promote cooperation with Vietnamese airlines to further strengthen aviation connectivity between the two countries, with the goal of Airlink being the gateway to Africa for Vietnamese airlines and Vietnamese airlines being the gateway to Asia for Airlink in particular and South African airlines in general.
Mr. De Villiers Engelbrecht expressed his good feelings towards Vietnam and agreed with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the important significance of enhancing aviation cooperation for the relationship between the two countries.
He said that there are discussions with Vietnamese airlines to implement cooperation activities according to the contents that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had commented on, thereby contributing to establishing a cooperation corridor on tourism and people-to-people exchange between the two countries./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/thu-tuong-pham-minh-chinh-lam-viec-voi-cac-to-chuc-doanh-nghiep-nam-phi-post1078486.vnp
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