Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on January 17 presided over a seminar themed “Vietnam – leading sustainable investment in ASEAN” in Davos as part of his trip to Switzerland to attend the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF-54).

At the seminar in Davos on January 17. (Photo: VNA)

The event was jointly held by the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam's permanent mission in Geneva, the Young Presidents' Organisation (YPO) and the VinaCapital Foundation.

PM Chinh expressed his belief that after the WEF-54, which takes the theme of “Rebuilding Trust”, the trust among countries, among businesses, and between countries and businesses will be consolidated and fostered, including the confidence in Vietnam.

The leader briefed the participants on some fundamental factors that make Vietnam a safe, healthy and sustainable investment destination, and highlighted the country's valuable experiences such as persistently pursuing national independence and socialism, maximising the strength of the great national solidarity and international solidarity, combining the strength of the nation with that of the era, creatively applying Marxism-Leninism, President Ho Chi Minh's ideology and cultural and historical traditions, and upholding the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam.

Regarding Vietnam's major orientations, he said that Vietnam is building a socialist democracy, a law-governed socialist State of the people, by the people and for the people, and a socialist-oriented market economy.

Vietnam is a developing country, so its economy needs the State’s regulation when necessary, he said, stressing that Vietnam considers the people the centre, the subject, the most important driver and resource, and the target of development. Vietnam will not trade social equality and welfare and environment for economic growth, PM Chinh said.

He went on to say that Vietnam stays steadfast in its foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, friendship, cooperation and development, diversification and multilateralisation of relations, comprehensive, intensive, extensive and effective international integration, and being a friend, a reliable partner, and a constructive and responsible member of the international community; as well as in its "four no's" defence policy.

The PM emphasised that Vietnam has set up diplomatic relations with more than 190 countries, including comprehensive strategic or strategic partnerships with all of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and many of the Group of Twenty (G20) developed and emerging economies, and signed 16 Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with more than 60 countries.

Vietnam aims to become a developing country with a modern industry and upper middle income by 2030, and a developed, high-income nation by 2045, he said, adding to that end, the country will further step up the three breakthroughs of strategic infrastructure construction, high-quality personnel training, and institution perfection.

At the same time, it will roll out mechanisms and incentives for priority, spearhead and emerging sectors such as digital transformation, science-technology, AI and green transition, PM Chinh told the seminar.

He highlighted Vietnam’s efforts in maintaining macro-economic stability, controlling inflation, spurring growth, ensuring major economic balances, and guaranteeing that public, government and foreign debts and overspending are within its control.

Despite global turmoil, Vietnam still persistently pursues these policies in the spirit of harmonising the interests of the State, people, businesses and investors and sharing risks, he affirmed, calling this the greatest balance.

On this occasion, the PM called on investors to bring more capital and cutting-edge technologies to Vietnam, and contribute ideas to help the country consolidate its institutions, develop human resources and improve administration capacity, pledging that the government, ministries and agencies are always ready for dialogues and negotiations.

Delegates at the seminar expressed their impressions of Vietnam’s remarkable socio-economic achievements in 2023 with GDP growth of 5.05%, controlled inflation and big volume of foreign direct investment, and noted their belief that the Southeast Asian nation will play a more important role in the global supply chain.

Thomas Serva, CEO of France’s Baracoda Group, said Vietnam is one of the most attractive destinations, with abundant, high-quality human resources, and that his group wants to participate in building innovation centres and developing AI in the country.