Prime Minister chairs conference with heads of Vietnamese representative offices abroad on economic diplomacy

Overview of the conference at Bac Ninh’s venue.

Deputy PM and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son; leaders of ministries, departments and branches; Ambassadors/Heads of Vietnamese representative offices abroad also attended the conference.

Participants at Bac Ninh’s venue were Mr. Vuong Quoc Tuan, Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee; leaders of departments, branches and sectors.

In 2024, economic diplomacy has been implemented by ministries, departments, branches, agencies and localities with a drastic and proactive spirit, opening up many new and breakthrough directions, achieving many important results, contributing more and more substantially and effectively to the implementation of socio-economic development goals. In nearly 60 foreign affairs activities of key leaders in 2024, economic diplomacy has become the focus, bringing specific and substantial results. Notable are the PM’s visits to India, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Romania, Dominican Republic; his working visits to China, Russia, etc.

More than 170 cooperation agreements were signed on the occasion of high-ranking activities. Foreign relations continued to be expanded, improved and upgraded. By high-level and all-level exchanges, traditional growth drivers were promoted through cooperation promotion in trade, investment, tourism and labor with major markets and key investment partners. During the year, Vietnamese representative offices abroad carried out more than 700 economic diplomacy activities to promote trade, investment and tourism; supported localities in promoting, introducing, connecting and establishing relations with foreign partners in many diverse, creative and innovative forms with more than 400 trade and investment promotion activities of localities at home and abroad.

In 2025, the country’s economic diplomacy will focus on a number of key tasks such as promoting economic diplomacy in high-level foreign affairs activities; establishing an exchange mechanism with partners to promote the implementation of high-level commitments and agreements that have been reached; promoting new growth drivers, in which technology diplomacy, semiconductor diplomacy, and economic diplomacy are the focus and breakthrough of new-age economic diplomacy.

Speaking at the conference, PM Chinh commended and appreciated the contributions of Vietnamese representative office abroad, businesses and people to the country’s common achievements.

In the coming time, it is necessary to continue negotiating and signing FTAs, promoting the expansion of markets. The PM requested that ambassadors need to follow up and change their working methods to have specific products. It is recommended to evaluate the outstanding potential, advantages as well as limitations and shortcomings of partners to have appropriate solutions. Representative offices abroad should study and have appropriate visa policies to create more favorable conditions for tourists. They also need to connecting businesses with enterprises, those of our country with the host country, and so on.

At the Bac Ninh’s venue, Chairman Vuong Quoc Tuan requested delegates attending the conference to seriously absorb the PM’s comments and instructions so that they can advise and effectively implement economic diplomacy work of the province in 2025 and the following years.

For the key tasks in 2025, the Chairman asked departments, branches, and localities to promote investment attraction, create new momentum for the province’s development, strive to attract FDI of USD 2 billion in the first quarter of 2025. In addition, the functional agencies shall urgently start construction of new and modern urban areas, commercial services, and entertainment to meet the criteria of a type I urban area directly under the Central Government, he added.