Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh receives the General Director of the World Trade Organization

The Prime Minister highly appreciated the role and efforts of the Director-General in operating and promoting WTO activities; congratulated her on the remarkable results she has achieved since taking office as WTO Director-General in March 2021.

The Prime Minister affirmed that Vietnam has always been proactive and actively promoted international integration in general and international economic integration in particular in a comprehensive, profound, and increasingly substantive and effective manner. After more than 35 years of reform, the size of Vietnam's economy has reached US$409 billion; per capita income has increased from US$160 to US$4,100. Vietnam's export turnover reached US$371 billion in 2022. To date, Vietnam has been among the top 20 economies in international trade; it has signed approximately 100 bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, and more than 60 agreements on investment promotion and protection.

Sharing Vietnam's successes at the request of the WTO Director-General, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that Vietnam has a correct national development path based on three main pillars: building a socialist democracy, a socialist rule of law state, and a socialist-oriented market economy.

Throughout this process, Vietnam has prioritized internal resources as its strategic and decisive factor, while external resources are considered crucial and groundbreaking; it places people at the center, as the subject, driving force, and resource of development; and it does not sacrifice social justice, progress, or the environment for purely economic growth. Simultaneously, Vietnam has steadfastly pursued an independent and self-reliant foreign policy for peace, friendship, cooperation, and development, multilateralism, diversification, and comprehensive and deep international integration.

The Prime Minister affirmed that as a responsible member of the WTO, Vietnam advocates promoting a proactive and active role in the WTO's cooperation frameworks, striving to fully implement its commitments and making positive and constructive contributions to issues of common concern at the WTO.

Vietnam has always supported an open, transparent, fair, and rules-based multilateral trading system with the WTO playing a central role in promoting trade and investment, while also contributing to effectively addressing challenges facing countries such as connecting supply chains, eliminating tariff barriers, and combating trade protectionism; and promoting trade exchange in the context of the current decline in global trade.

The Prime Minister expressed his hope that the WTO would continue to play its coordinating role in promoting inclusive and balanced global trade; supporting member countries in seizing opportunities from shifting trends and reshaping supply chains, production, and investment, especially in developing and least developed countries, in line with the principles and objectives of the WTO.

To further strengthen cooperation between the WTO and Vietnam, the Prime Minister proposed that the WTO continue its strong and substantive reforms to affirm its role as the foundation of a transparent and fair multilateral trading system, ensuring practical benefits and efficiency for countries, especially developing and least developed countries, including Vietnam; the WTO reform process needs to ensure a balance of rights and obligations, in accordance with the level of development and implementation capacity of members, especially developing members with low and least developed levels.

The Prime Minister stated that Vietnam is ready to share its experience in implementing its WTO accession commitments, promoting trade growth, socio-economic development, poverty reduction, reducing social inequality, and empowering women in the economy; to cooperate with members to make substantive and effective contributions to WTO activities in the coming period, specifically in implementing the commitments of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (June 2022); and to strive to reach consensus on how to address the major remaining issues that the WTO and member countries will need to continue to address.

The Prime Minister hopes that the Director General and the WTO will continue to support and promote cooperation programs and financial and technical assistance from the WTO to help Vietnam improve the effectiveness of international economic integration and continue to make practical contributions to WTO activities.

Director General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala congratulated Vietnam on its socio-economic development achievements; saying that Vietnam's success has inspired and provided experience for many countries around the world, especially in the field of foreign economic relations serving national development.

In particular, in recent times, while the world economy has faced many difficulties and challenges, Vietnam's economy has still grown at a fairly high rate because Vietnam has had major orientations and has managed financial and monetary policies flexibly and effectively.

Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala agreed with the Prime Minister's views on reforming the WTO and strengthening cooperation between the WTO and Vietnam; expressed her desire to cooperate with Vietnam in developing a green economy, digital economy, and inclusive economy; and continued to pay attention to and care for the lives of vulnerable groups, women, and children so that no one is left behind.

VNA

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