On the evening of July 18, at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a conference to promote economic diplomacy and boost economic growth in the last 6 months of 2024 and the following years.
GDP growth in the past 6 months exceeded the set scenario
At the conference, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that in 36 high-level foreign affairs activities from the beginning of 2024 until now, economic content continues to be the focus and brings specific and substantive results.
The review of the implementation of international commitments and agreements has been vigorously implemented with a monthly meeting mechanism. Nearly 400 agreements of ministries, branches and localities have been reviewed, contributing to speeding up the implementation progress and removing obstacles.
Besides the achieved results, delegates also frankly admitted that economic diplomacy is sometimes not really sensitive and creative.
In addition, economic cooperation with some strategic areas is not yet commensurate with the framework of the relationship, and the handling and removal of obstacles in some projects is not really drastic and thorough.
Speaking at the conclusion of the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that every quarter, the Prime Minister organizes conferences to develop foreign economic relations, connect with the world economy, support production, business and participate in the global supply chain.
The Head of Government also outlined the positive socio-economic results in the first 6 months of the year.
In particular, the macro economy continued to be maintained stable, inflation was controlled, major balances were ensured, growth was promoted, GDP growth in the second quarter recovered strongly, reaching 6.93%, the total for the first 6 months reached 6.42%, much higher than the same period in 2023 (3.84%) and exceeded the set scenario.
On this occasion, the Prime Minister also commended the active contributions of Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, the business community and the people.
He said the situation is increasingly difficult and challenging, so we must not be negligent, subjective, or lose vigilance, even though the achievements in the first 6 months of the year are very valuable and welcome.
The Prime Minister assessed that in recent times, Vietnamese representative agencies abroad have become more experienced, more systematic, and more professional. Therefore, he believes that in the coming time, Vietnamese representative agencies abroad will do even better.
Renewing traditional growth drivers
The Prime Minister stated that in the coming time, Vietnam’s GDP growth target will be higher, from 6.5 – 7%, along with actively implementing three strategic breakthroughs in institutions, infrastructure and human resources.
Vietnam also prioritizes growth, renewing traditional growth drivers such as investment, export, consumption and promoting new growth drivers such as digital economy, green economy, circular economy, semiconductor chips, artificial intelligence… taking innovation, science and technology as the driving force for development.
The Prime Minister requested to continue promoting three strategic breakthroughs, identifying priorities for growth, and therefore focusing on renewing traditional growth drivers including consumption, investment and export.
Vietnamese representative agencies abroad need to focus on export motivation, and to do so, they must promote export markets.
The Prime Minister also requested that representative agencies promote Vietnamese goods and products to the world, and increase the introduction of Vietnam’s business and investment environment, especially new policies, achievements in infrastructure development, and training of high-quality human resources.
In addition, it is necessary to listen to the opinions of localities on the needs and goals of national development; connect countries, economic regions, the world economy with the Vietnamese economy; connect world enterprises with Vietnamese enterprises; connect localities with localities of other countries to take advantage of development opportunities.
The Head of Government requested that businesses and localities actively connect with Vietnamese representative agencies abroad to convey information, enhance competitiveness of goods, and promote Vietnamese products to the world.
The Government, ministries and branches must perform well the work of state management, orient development; plan raw material areas so that goods are competitive enough and suitable for world trends.
Negotiate and sign more FTAs
The Government will continue to make efforts to improve the business investment environment with the spirit of making each year better than the previous year, each term better than the previous term, and each quarter better than the previous quarter.
The Prime Minister also directed Vietnamese representative agencies abroad to continue negotiating and signing FTAs (currently there are 16 FTAs with 60 partners – PV).
At the same time, promote the expansion of markets in the Middle East, South America, Africa, and Halal products. In addition, it is necessary to closely monitor the situation of trade defense measures applied by countries on Vietnam’s export products to have early and remote response measures.
For tourism, it is necessary to study appropriate visa policies to further facilitate tourists, continue to promote recovery momentum and take advantage of possible opportunities to export labor to other countries.
Vietnamese representative agencies abroad, together with ministries, sectors and enterprises, must focus on researching new and innovative solutions to attract investment and finance for development.
In addition, it is necessary to grasp early and from afar development trends, science and technology, management experience and skills to promote technology transfer, human resource training, and improve management capacity in a smart and modern direction, especially in emerging industries and fields to “catch up, keep up and surpass”.
Also at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested that Vietnamese representative agencies abroad need to more effectively exploit the community of about 6 million Vietnamese people abroad.
This is both a resource and a bridge between Vietnam and the world, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of overseas Vietnamese in a proactive and effective manner, sharing difficulties, promoting favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to settle down and do business, and providing support domestically.