Deploy economic agreements into specific, practical and effective projects and products.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh praised and highly appreciated the efforts and successes of the diplomatic sector - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

On December 21, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs held a plenary session on economic diplomacy for national development within the framework of the 32nd Diplomatic Conference in both in-person and online formats. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and delivered a speech at the conference.

Also attending the meeting were comrades: Former Politburo member, former Deputy Prime Minister, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Gia Khiem; former Politburo member, former Deputy Prime Minister, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh; Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Party Central Committee's External Relations Commission Le Hoai Trung; Party Central Committee members: Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat, Senior Lieutenant General Le Huy Vinh, Deputy Minister of National Defense .

Attending the event in person and online were also leaders of departments, ministries, branches, central agencies, leaders of 63 provinces and cities, large enterprises and corporations, leaders of units under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ambassadors, heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, and a number of representatives of enterprises and associations.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son emphasized that, on the basis of closely following the foreign policy of the 13th National Party Congress, the directions of the Politburo, the Secretariat and the leaders of the Party, State and Government, strongly promoting the identity of "Vietnam's bamboo diplomacy", foreign affairs and especially economic diplomacy have been strongly and synchronously deployed across all foreign affairs pillars, taking place vigorously and widely across continents on both bilateral and multilateral levels.

As General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong assessed at the opening plenary session of the 32nd Diplomatic Conference, foreign affairs work over the past three years "has achieved many important and historic results and achievements, becoming an impressive highlight among the country's overall results and achievements over the past years".

The Minister shared that the achievements of economic diplomacy are the crystallization of the intelligence and efforts of sectors, localities and businesses, as well as of the entire political system and economy, including the contributions of the diplomatic sector.

The Prime Minister also proposed to promote the building of a team of dedicated and capable diplomatic staff - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Promoting some new breakthrough directions

The opinions and discussions of delegates from ministries, sectors, localities, enterprises and heads of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad affirmed that, in recent times, the foreign affairs situation has been constantly consolidated, strategic and breakthrough cooperation frameworks have been shaped, creating favorable conditions for the country's socio-economic development.

Representatives of ministries, sectors, localities and enterprises expressed their appreciation for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnamese representative agencies abroad for accompanying and supporting localities and enterprises in implementing economic diplomacy, especially in research, information, promoting investment cooperation, promoting import and export and attracting resources for national development. Agencies, localities and enterprises expressed their wish that the diplomatic sector would further promote economic diplomacy in the coming time on the basis of closely following the needs and development orientations of the country, in the spirit of taking people, localities and enterprises as the center of service.

The plenary session discussed and identified a number of key areas in cooperation with key partners; discussed solutions to strengthen and improve the effectiveness of coordination between the diplomatic sector and agencies, localities and enterprises in implementing economic diplomacy, especially promoting a number of new breakthrough directions, such as implementing "agricultural diplomacy", making Vietnam an important link in the global semiconductor value chain, building Ho Chi Minh City into an international financial center, increasing investment attraction from investment funds in the Gulf region, effectively implementing the project "Strengthening international cooperation in developing Vietnam's Halal industry"...

Delegates shared the importance of strengthening the implementation of economic diplomacy for development and proposed many solutions to promote traditional growth drivers, such as exports, investment, promoting agricultural diplomacy, expanding new development space for the economy in the fields of green growth, digital transformation, and semiconductor industry development...

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son shares about the achievements of the diplomatic sector in recent times - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Emphasizing the message "Vietnamese agriculture converges values, spreads culture", Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said he was very proud that agricultural products, OCOP, and handicraft products from craft villages were honored to be used as high-level foreign affairs gifts. "It seems that in terms of market, marketing, promotion, and foreign affairs, there is no distinction between businesses, farmers, or country leaders", the Minister shared and proposed implementing "agricultural diplomacy" associated with promoting sustainable agricultural development and ensuring food security.

Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that it is necessary to continue to effectively implement the Party and State's policy of making the most of opportunities and advantages from signed FTAs, while focusing on exploiting new markets with great potential and suitable for Vietnam's strong industries. In particular, successfully penetrating the Halal market is very important, because the global Halal market size is forecast to continue to grow strongly in the coming time (expected to be about 10,000 billion USD in 2028), while Vietnam is considered to have strengths in this field.

The Minister assessed that Vietnam's reaching of an agreement in principle towards the early signing of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with the UAE during the Prime Minister's recent working visit is considered an important initial step, laying the foundation for development into the Middle East and other Halal markets in the coming time.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan and Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien spoke at the conference - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that foreign investors and enterprises have felt the determined, proactive and substantial participation of the Government, ministries and branches, along with the promotion, introduction and connection of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad to promote comprehensive development of priority areas, especially in potential areas such as innovation, high technology, semiconductor chips, energy, etc.

Thanks to that, large associations and corporations in the world, such as the Semiconductor Association (SIA), Nvidia, SK, Samsung, John Cockerill... have all recognized and identified Vietnam as a strategic location to set up production and development facilities.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation to the European Union (EU) Nguyen Van Thao proposed making environmental protection and climate change cooperation a key area of ​​cooperation between the two sides in the coming time.

He said that EU leaders highly appreciate Vietnam's commitment to combating climate change and reducing carbon emissions. On the other hand, the EU has recently issued a series of new policies such as carbon policy, accountability policy... and will have a strong impact on Vietnam's exports if we do not meet the regulations, especially large industries such as textiles, footwear... Therefore, this is the best direction for businesses to adapt to the EU's new regulations and increase competitiveness.

Pham Thanh Binh, Director of the Northeast Asia Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that strengthening substantive cooperation, especially in economic and trade relations with China, is extremely important, contributing to maintaining the stable development of bilateral relations. Recently, senior leaders of the two Parties and two countries have identified major and important orientations on continuing to deepen and elevate bilateral relations, including many major measures to deepen economic and trade cooperation.

Vietnamese Ambassador to the United States Nguyen Quoc Dung said that Vietnamese enterprises often prioritize stability. Currently, many US enterprises are interested in emerging fields such as renewable energy, semiconductors, green energy, etc. Notably, US enterprises often tend to cooperate and work together to create a complete ecosystem, with advantages in infrastructure, logistics, human resources, energy, etc.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dang Xuan Dung said that Vietnam can take advantage of the financial resources of large public investment funds in the Gulf. These funds have been planning to diversify their investment locations and portfolios, paying more attention to emerging countries on the basis of assessing that this group of countries can bring them higher profits than traditional safe investments in Europe and the US.

The Prime Minister visits and talks with leaders and diplomatic officials from different periods - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Economic diplomacy remains an important pillar

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh praised and highly appreciated the efforts and successes of the diplomatic sector and foreign affairs forces in recent times with 6 outstanding achievements in: (1) Continuing to innovate thinking and awareness, making the economy truly become the central task of foreign affairs activities, closely grasping the situation and effectively consulting in building economic diplomacy policies; (2) Combining national strength with the strength of the times, between the inside and the outside;

(3) Contribute to solving global and national issues such as food security, climate change response, and environmental protection; (4) Create a peaceful, stable, and cooperative environment for development; (5) Improve the effectiveness of cultural diplomacy, turning culture into endogenous strength; (6) Effectively implement people-to-people diplomacy, promote economic relations between businesses and businesses, people and people, especially between localities.

The Prime Minister acknowledged that these achievements were made thanks to the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in thoroughly grasping and concretizing the foreign policy of the Party and State, putting national interests above all, while harmonizing interests and sharing risks with partners; promoting the fine traditions of previous generations in the diplomatic sector, along with close and smooth coordination between ministries, sectors and localities; responding quickly, accurately and promptly.

Accordingly, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh suggested that economic diplomacy must closely follow domestic requirements, take practice as a measure, promote efficiency, sincerity, respect, and trust, and at the same time promote the building of a team of diplomatic cadres who are politically sensitive, economically sensitive, deeply knowledgeable in science and technology, proficient in diplomacy, knowledgeable about the law, dedicated and visionary.

The Prime Minister assessed that in the coming time, the world situation will continue to be difficult, with more dangers than opportunities. In that context, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must make more efforts and enhance its proactiveness in implementing economic diplomacy. Diplomacy is comprehensive, but economic diplomacy remains an important pillar.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh presents certificates of merit to collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Take businesses and localities as the center of service

The Prime Minister set out six main tasks for the diplomatic sector and relevant agencies in implementing economic diplomacy.

Firstly, continue to institutionalize and concretize the resolutions, conclusions and directions of the Party and State, especially the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, effectively implement Directive No. 15 of the Secretariat and Resolution No. 21 of the Government on economic diplomacy on the basis of innovation in thinking, strategic vision, methodology and approach to promote the central role of the economy.

Second, implementing work with focus and key points, closely following the general trend of the world, combined with focusing on removing difficulties and overcoming challenges. The Prime Minister gave an example, ODA loans need to focus on projects to turn around the situation and change the state.

Third, perfecting mechanisms, promoting cooperation, concretizing economic commitments and agreements, and reviewing the implementation of signed commitments. The Prime Minister assessed that in the past, we have made efforts to transform commitments and agreements into specific, practical projects, programs, and products that bring about measurable results, and this needs to continue in the coming time.

Fourth, diversify markets, products, and supply chains. Focus on exploiting the potential of the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Halal markets.

Fifth, promote self-reliance, self-improvement, and creativity.

Sixth, strengthen coordination and linkage with sectors and localities in the spirit of "taking businesses and localities as the center of service", closely following the requirements of people and businesses, and having to do and provide "what people need, not what we have".

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son presents certificates of merit to collectives and individuals with outstanding achievements - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

The conference absorbed the Prime Minister's instructions to discuss and propose programs, projects, and measures to synchronously, creatively, and effectively implement economic diplomacy activities, contributing to making this work truly a strong driving force for the country's rapid and sustainable development in the new period.

Through the meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has more thoroughly grasped the policies, viewpoints, mottos and orientations of the Party and State on socio-economic development and economic diplomacy, adding new motivation, spirit and strengthening the determination for the diplomatic sector, together with sectors, localities and enterprises, to successfully implement the country's socio-economic development goals.

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/thu-tuong-trien-khai-cac-thoa-thuan-kinh-te-thanh-du-an-san-pham-cu-the-thuc-chat-hieu-qua-368288.html