On the morning of November 25, in Quang Ninh , Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the Vietnam-Japan Local Cooperation Forum with the theme "Accompanying Comprehensive Development - Creating a Sustainable Future."
Speaking at the forum, the Prime Minister called on Japanese localities and businesses to continue to trust and stick with Vietnam in the development process; and to constantly contribute to the prosperity of the two countries as well as the Vietnam-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Also attending were Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung; leaders of relevant ministries, branches, agencies, the Vietnamese Ambassador and Vietnamese Consuls General in Japan, leaders and representatives of local departments and branches, and typical corporations, general companies, enterprises and experts.
On the Japanese side, the Japanese Prime Minister sent a congratulatory message; the Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam attended with leaders and representatives of 18 Japanese localities, organizations, associations, businesses from Japan as well as Japanese partners operating in Vietnam.
After more than 50 years of establishment, especially when the two countries upgraded to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2023, Vietnam-Japan relations are in a very good stage of development. To date, there have been more than 110 cooperation agreements between localities of the two sides, creating an important foundation to bring Vietnam-Japan relations into depth, practicality and effectiveness.
The forum will concretize the contents agreed upon by the two countries' senior leaders to strengthen the Vietnam-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; establish a regular dialogue and connection mechanism, contributing to enhancing exchanges, sharing of experiences and promoting substantive cooperation, bringing harmonious benefits to both sides.
Within the framework of the Forum, there will be more than 100 activities connecting and working between the parties. A Vietnam-Japan local exhibition will also be held with more than 40 booths displaying typical Vietnamese-Japanese local products and an area for cultural exchange and experience between the two countries.
In his opening speech, Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Hoai Trung believed and hoped that localities of the two countries would participate more proactively and actively in the process of concretizing and deepening the content of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership framework between Vietnam and Japan, turning commitments and agreements into specific projects, works and programs, so that the localities themselves would be the direct beneficiaries of the achievements of the development of Vietnam-Japan relations, bringing practical benefits to the people of the two countries.
With the spirit of “diplomacy serving development, taking people, localities and businesses as the center of service,” the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with three representative agencies in Japan, pledged to always accompany and provide maximum support to localities and businesses of the two countries in the journey of connecting, sharing information, promoting cooperation implementation, and developing comprehensively, effectively and for a sustainable future.
Speaking at the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh conveyed the warm welcome from General Secretary To Lam and personally welcomed the attendance of leaders of nearly 50 localities from Japan and Vietnam, representatives of ministries, branches and businesses of the two countries at this important and meaningful event; sent his sincere greetings, warm regards and best wishes.
Thanking General Secretary To Lam and the Japanese Prime Minister for their attention and direction, and sending messages to the Forum, the Prime Minister said that with the motto "Unity for strength - cooperation for benefits - dialogue for trust", the Vietnam-Japan Local Cooperation Forum with the theme "Accompanying comprehensive development - Creating a sustainable future" has very practical and strategic significance, clearly demonstrating the spirit of win-win cooperation, accompanying development, and creating a future for peace, stability and prosperity of both countries.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that with a history of more than 1,300 years of people-to-people exchange and more than half a century of diplomatic relations, Vietnam and Japan have together cultivated a friendly and cooperative relationship that is increasingly trustworthy, comprehensive, substantive and effective. Up to now, Japan has become Vietnam's leading economic cooperation partner, ranking first in ODA and labor cooperation, third in investment and fourth in trade and tourism.
In particular, after 2 years of upgrading the relationship to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the relationship between the two countries has had many strong developments. Among them, the two sides have raised the level and established many new dialogue mechanisms in traditional cooperation areas such as diplomacy, defense, security, and labor to build, consolidate, and enhance mutual trust; economic links between the two countries continue to be strengthened, especially in the fields of infrastructure, education, health, industry, technology transfer, and human resource training; continue to expand cooperation to new areas such as digital transformation, green transformation, circular economy, and creative economy; scientific and technological cooperation is identified as a new pillar of bilateral relations, opening up new cooperation space for innovation in all fields.
Along with that, very positive growth was achieved in a number of important cooperation indicators such as two-way trade turnover increased by 20%, investment from Japan to Vietnam increased by more than 8 billion USD, the number of Vietnamese people in Japan increased by more than 20%, more than 10 pairs of localities signed many new cooperation documents; more and more Vietnamese localities and enterprises proactively invested and expanded operations in Japan, especially in the fields of digital transformation, trade, tourism, and medical connection; political trust is increasing, the economy is increasingly effective, people-to-people exchange is increasingly strong, and people of the two countries enjoy the fruits of the bilateral relationship.
The Prime Minister highly appreciated the valuable contributions of Japanese localities and enterprises to the above-mentioned cooperation results, as well as to the socio-economic development of Vietnam in recent times; affirmed that local cooperation and business cooperation are unique features of the Vietnam-Japan relationship, a practical and effective connection channel, contributing to the implementation and concretization of the agreement between the two countries' senior leaders.
Informing the Forum on the situation in Vietnam, the Prime Minister said that after 80 years of construction and development, 40 years of innovation, from a country besieged, isolated, devastated by war, Vietnam today is among the top 35 economies in the world, among the top 20 countries with the largest trade scale in the world, participating in 17 free trade agreements (FTAs) with 60 partner economies, establishing diplomatic relations with 194 countries; GDP per capita increased nearly 50 times.
The macro economy is stable, the major balances of the economy are ensured. National defense and security are maintained; social order, safety and social security are guaranteed, and people's lives are constantly improved.
Entering a new era of development, Vietnam is determined to remove bottlenecks and bottlenecks in institutions, human resources and infrastructure, focusing on clearing, mobilizing and effectively using all resources, promoting economic restructuring associated with growth model innovation, taking science and technology, innovation and digital transformation as breakthrough development drivers, contributing to realizing the double-digit growth target from 2026, bringing the country into an era of rising up to develop richly, civilized and prosperously, becoming a developed country with high income by 2045.
Sharing about Vietnam's business investment environment, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the Vietnamese Government continues to focus on resolutely and synchronously implementing many of the following groups of solutions in the spirit of 3 principles: "open institutions, smooth infrastructure, smart governance".
Among them, institutional breakthroughs with the spirit of "turning institutions from bottlenecks into national competitive advantages", "institutions are the driving force, resource, and goal of development", "institutions must go early, go ahead to pave the way for development."
Promote seamless infrastructure connectivity between provinces and regions, national and international connections in a synchronous and modern direction, including expressway systems, high-speed railways, urban railways, airports, seaports, etc. Innovate smart governance thinking in the direction of "both tight management and development creation, maximum resource mobilization for development", abandon the mindset of "if you can't manage, then ban", "if you don't know, then don't manage"; promote decentralization, decentralization, eliminate the request-grant mechanism; apply a two-level local government model, eliminate unnecessary intermediate levels.
Believing that the room and potential for cooperation between Vietnam and Japan is still very large; to contribute to further exploiting this room and at the same time improving the quality and effectiveness of cooperation between the business communities and localities of the two countries, the Prime Minister suggested a number of major orientations for the two sides to strengthen cooperation.
Among them, the Prime Minister suggested being proactive, creative, and promoting the potentials and complementary factors between the two countries' localities to promote local cooperation on the principle of "mutual benefit", "one side needs, the other side has", for common prosperity. Vietnam has localities that need capital, technology, and underdeveloped supporting industries, etc., while Japan also has localities that are facing problems of labor shortage, aging population, and lack of growth momentum.
Identifying “taking businesses and people as the center, subject, goal, driving force and main resource of cooperation,” the Prime Minister said at this Forum that in addition to localities, there are hundreds of businesses from both countries making efforts to seek opportunities for connection and trade.
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, while ensuring that people are the main beneficiaries of cooperation in the spirit of 3 more: Better jobs, higher income, better skills.
Emphasizing that cultural exchange and mutual understanding are the foundation of long-term cooperation, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh 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.
Believing that innovation and digital transformation must become new growth drivers for local cooperation, the Prime Minister suggested that the two sides study and promote cooperation models in digital technology, AI, smart cities, startup incubators, and R&D centers.
Among them, the Prime Minister hopes that the Japanese side will increase experience sharing and support 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, and semiconductors.
The Prime Minister proposed further strengthening cooperation in green transformation, climate change response, resource management, and natural disaster prevention and control. The two sides exchanged and shared experiences and proposed specific cooperation projects on green infrastructure, urban flood prevention, waste-water treatment, smart agriculture adapting to climate change, and renewable energy.
The Prime Minister said that the Vietnamese Government welcomed and agreed with the statement made by Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi right after his election, which was “Work! Work! Work and Work!”; committed 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.
Calling on Japanese localities and enterprises to continue to trust and stick with Vietnam in the development process; constantly contributing to the prosperity of the two countries as well as the Vietnam-Japan Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh believes that the first Vietnam-Japan Local Cooperation Forum will be an important milestone, a "new push" to open 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", in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of both countries and peoples./.
Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/thu-tuong-quan-he-viet-nam-nhat-ban-chan-thanh-tinh-cam-tin-cay-thuc-chat-hieu-qua-post1079126.vnp
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