At noon on March 11 (local time), in Wellington, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh held a discussion with leading businesses from New Zealand and the world in many fields to explore the potential, needs and possibilities for Vietnam-New Zealand investment cooperation.
The seminar was jointly organized by the Ministry of Planning and Investment , the Embassy of Vietnam in New Zealand and the ASEAN-New Zealand Business Council.
Also attending the discussion were Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister and Head of the Government Office Tran Van Son, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan, and leaders of ministries, branches and localities.
On the New Zealand side, there were the Mayor of Wellington City, the Mayor of Palmerston North City; the New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam and many representatives of New Zealand associations, agencies and businesses attending.
Overview of the discussion.
Attending the conference were leading businesses, corporations, and research institutions, such as ANZ (Australia's second largest bank by assets and the world's fourth largest bank by market capitalization), Fonterra (New Zealand's largest private corporation and one of the world's largest dairy producers, accounting for 30% of the global consumer market with 2023 profits of more than 22 billion USD), New Zealand's leading research institute GNS Science, New Zealand's leading Auckland University of Technology, Zespri International Limited (New Zealand's leading kiwifruit production and distribution group, with 2023 revenue of nearly 4 billion USD), T&G (New Zealand's leading group in the agriculture and food industry, with 2023 revenue of 1.29 billion USD), TMC (New Zealand's leading textile and apparel exporter), Reveal (a leading company in Australia and New Zealand in the field of research, design, and construction of infrastructure). underground, using new technologies such as 3D scanning and geographic analysis), Biolumic (the world's leading biotechnology group headquartered in New Zealand), New Zealand Wind Energy (an emerging enterprise in the field of wind energy development), New Zealand Plant and Food Research Institute...
After being introduced to the socio-economic development situation, especially the potential and investment opportunities in Vietnam, leaders of New Zealand agencies and enterprises introduced their capacity and ability, needs, desires, and plans for investment and business cooperation in Vietnam.
New Zealand is interested in Vietnam's investment attraction policy, especially in infrastructure development; the need and possibility of cooperation in the fields of education, training and science and technology; food import; cooperation in training and providing nurses for elderly health care; cooperation in combating climate change; green transportation, carbon reduction, energy conversion; sustainable agricultural development, high technology, etc.
Summarizing the groups of issues that the delegates were interested in, the Prime Minister assigned Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan to answer questions related to health, medicine, and nutrition; Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung to clarify issues related to technology, innovation, infrastructure, and capital recovery; Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien to mention green energy investment opportunities, etc.
Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat said that Vietnam is currently focusing on fundamental and comprehensive reform of education. To do so, Vietnam needs to learn from models of advanced countries, including New Zealand; the opportunities for educational cooperation between the two countries are very potential. He hopes that investors in the education sector will exchange with agencies so that the two sides can cooperate more, both in general education and higher education; at the same time, promote stronger cooperation and linkages in scientific research and technology transfer. More specifically, it is necessary to increase the number of Vietnamese students sent to New Zealand and bring Vietnamese researchers to New Zealand to work and study together.
Clarifying some contents of green and clean agricultural development, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that in 2023, Vietnam's rice exports set a record in output and productivity with an export turnover of 4.78 billion USD, an increase of 36.6% over the previous year. Currently, Vietnam is implementing a program of 1 million hectares of high-quality, low-emission rice in the Mekong Delta. Most recently, Australia's leading rice group SunRice has committed to participating in this program.
In response to the proposal of Biolumic (the world's leading biotechnology corporation headquartered in New Zealand) on applying light-based solutions to increase rice productivity and quality, the Minister said he was ready to introduce and connect New Zealand corporations with Vietnamese partners, such as the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute, leading enterprises... to implement the idea of using light technology in the rice industry.
Notably, Dr. Christine Clark, CEO of Kalandra Education Group, said that the company is ready to provide 1,000 nursing training scholarships to Vietnam. Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan highly appreciated this and said that under the direction of the Prime Minister, she will coordinate with agencies to discuss this matter directly with Kalandra.
After the Ministers answered and discussed, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh spoke to clarify the contents and answer the issues that New Zealand agencies and businesses were interested in; at the same time, he directed ministries and branches to continue discussing and creating the best conditions for New Zealand businesses to cooperate and invest effectively in Vietnam and with Vietnam.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the seminar.
The Prime Minister emphasized that over the past 50 years, Vietnam-New Zealand relations have achieved positive developments in many areas, however, there is still a lot of room for cooperation. Therefore, during the talks with the New Zealand Prime Minister, the two sides discussed and agreed to promote cooperation in various fields.
In particular, the two sides continue to strengthen political trust, strategic trust, political and diplomatic cooperation, creating a more solid foundation for bilateral relations; strengthen and expand cooperation on all important pillars of the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, including economics-trade-investment, national defense and security, agriculture and people-to-people exchange; accelerate and make breakthroughs in cooperation in emerging sectors such as science and technology, innovation, green economic development, digital economy, clean agricultural development, environmental protection, labor, education and training, etc.
The Prime Minister said that Vietnam has set a goal of becoming a modern industrialized country with an upper middle income by 2030; and a developed country with a high income by 2045. Currently, it is focusing on implementing three strategic breakthroughs, including promoting the development of strategic infrastructure, high-quality human resources, and institutional improvement. Therefore, there is still a lot of room for economic-trade-investment cooperation between the two sides.
Assessing the biggest obstacle and difficulty in cooperation between the two countries is the geographical distance, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that to overcome this, in the coming time, the two sides should study the reopening of direct flights to create more favorable conditions for trade; promote the development of e-commerce and online connection methods...
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh talks with New Zealand businesses.
The Prime Minister suggested that the Government, associations and business community of New Zealand further promote economic-trade-investment cooperation; open the market to make the most of bilateral trade agreements, cooperation frameworks, new-generation free trade agreements such as CPTPP, RCEP, AANZFTA, IPEF Framework... that both sides participate in; create favorable conditions for each other's goods to enter each other's markets; consider removing non-tariff barriers to Vietnamese goods, especially agricultural and aquatic products.
At the same time, improve the operational efficiency of the Intergovernmental Committee and dialogue mechanisms between the Governments and the business communities of the two countries; promote dialogue and connection with the Vietnamese business community. The ASEAN-New Zealand Business Council further promotes its role as an extension between the Governments and the business communities of the two countries.
Informing that Vietnam's policy of cooperation and attracting foreign investment is selective, aiming at quality, efficiency, sustainability, application of science and technology and environmental protection, the Prime Minister suggested that New Zealand businesses cooperate and invest with Vietnam through specific programs and projects in areas such as green economy, digital economy, circular economy, knowledge economy, science and technology, innovation, electronic components, electric cars, semiconductor manufacturing, new energy, such as hydrogen, renewable energy, essential minerals, building financial centers, green finance, biotechnology, healthcare, high-tech agriculture, training high-quality human resources, etc.
The Vietnamese community in New Zealand has about 15,000 people, many of whom work in the fields of trade and investment. Therefore, the Prime Minister asked New Zealand to continue supporting and creating conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to invest effectively in New Zealand, thereby participating more deeply and substantially in global supply and production chains.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leading businesses from New Zealand and the world in many fields
The Prime Minister hopes and believes that economic-investment-trade cooperation will continue to be an important and breakthrough pillar in the bilateral relationship, a driving force to help our two countries overcome difficulties and challenges to develop, so that each country becomes increasingly powerful and prosperous, and the people become increasingly happy and well-off.
According to the Prime Minister, in the spirit of "harmonious benefits and shared risks", Vietnam welcomes New Zealand investors to Vietnam. The Government is committed to always listening, accompanying, supporting and creating all favorable conditions for foreign enterprises in general and New Zealand enterprises in particular to invest effectively, long-term and sustainably in Vietnam; always protecting the legitimate and legal rights and interests of enterprises.
According to vov.vn
Source
Comment (0)