Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s participation in the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland (WEF Davos 2017) helped Vietnam access new ideas and development trends in the world serving its building and implementation of national development strategies. 

Deputy Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son made the remarks during an interview granted to the media after PM Phuc’s tour of Switzerland to take part in the event from January 17-21.

This is the first time after seven years Vietnam has had a Prime Minister attending the WEF Davos, he said.

At the meeting, the PM highlighted Vietnam’s determination to promote comprehensive national reform, economic restructuring and growth model shifting by 2020, Son said.

The Government leader affirmed Vietnam’s commitment to building a constructive and action-minded government as well as its efforts to improve the business and investment climate, foster startups, renovation and creativeness, contributing to raising the country’s position and image at the meeting. 

The PM met with senior officials from countries like Switzerland, the Netherland and Austria and representatives from the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, the Asian Development Bank and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development to deepen relations with the countries and organisations. 

Notably, he met and joined dialogues with representatives of about 40 out of 500 largest economic groups in the world, like Microsoft, Facebook, Alphabet (Google), Qualcom, Standard Chartered, Prudential, Alibaba, Mitsubishi, UPS, and Swiss Re, during which he called on them to expand their investment in Vietnam, Son said. 

Accompanying Vietnamese ministers actively joined sessions and had meeting with businesses to enhance links in agriculture and industry-manufacturing. 

According to Deputy FM Son, the WEF and Vietnam signed a cooperation agreement, in which the WEF will assist Vietnam in sustainable economic development through policy consultation on economic restructuring, competitiveness improvement, sand hi-tech agriculture development. 

Vietnam is the first country that WEF has signed a cooperation agreement under the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) form to help the country access and take advantage of resources and knowledge of the WEF and its members. 

Through WEF Davos 2017, Vietnam promoted its position and role as the host of APEC Year 2017 by inviting leaders of many world leading economic groups and international organisations to attend this event. 

The PM’s attendance in activities to celebrate the 50th founding anniversary of ASEAN during the meeting contributed to highlighting Vietnam’s responsible contributions to the formation of the ASEAN Community, Son noted. 

The Deputy FM affirmed that Vietnam’s presence at WEF DAVOS 2017 showed efforts made by the country’s diplomatic sector to seek opportunities to boost connection and promote Vietnam’s image to world-leading companies, thus attracting more high-quality resources for the country. 

Themed “Responsive and Responsible Leadership”, the meeting called on leaders and governments of WEF member countries to take responsible actions before the people and enterprises, towards contributing to maintaining peace, stability and cooperation in the world, Son said. 

WEF Davos 2017 included 446 sessions, focusing on promoting global economic growth, embracing inclusive growth, measures to take advantage of the fourth on-going industrial revolution, and shaping global cooperation orientations to effectively tackle issues related to peace, development and humanity, migration and the environment. 

Established in 1971, the WEF is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging businesses, politicians, academics and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industrial agendas.

VNA