(MPI) - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a meeting with foreign-invested enterprises on April 22. The meeting was co-organised by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Government Office.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung speaks at the event. Photo: MPI

Addressing the meeting, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung affirmed that the ministry will continue to innovate and advise the Government in creating breakthroughs in institutional reform and business and investment climate improvement.

He vowed that the ministry will coordinate closely with other ministries, sectors and localities to give favourable conditions for the business community in general and FDI firms in particular to effectively and successfully operate in the country.

The minister highlighted that Vietnam has maintained overall economic recovery momentum in the first quarter this year, such as macroeconomic stability is maintained, inflation is controlled, major balances of the economy are ensured. The country also ran a trade surplus of 4.07 billion USD and posted 3.32% GDP growth, and the realised FDI capital valued 4.3 billion USD.

Vietnam’ position has increasing improved with its economic achievements so far, Minister Dung noted that many prestigious international organisations praised the country's economic outlook and predicted that Vietnam will enjoy a GDP growth of 6.3-7% in 2023.

A 2022 JETRO survey on Japanese investment in Asia showed that 60% of Japanese enterprises would expand their investment in Vietnam in the next one to two years. the highest among Southeast Asian countries.

The country also remains in top five global investment destinations according to the Business Climate Index (BCI) by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (EuroCham), and ranks 65th out of 137 countries and territories as per the World Happiness Report 2023, up 12 places from the 2022 ones.

The official said besides outlined achievements, this year will be challenging for Vietnam due to its small scale and high openness of the economy with limited capacity of resilience and competitiveness.

Vietnam will strive to create a fair, favourable and transparent investment environment, removing all bottlenecks in resource mobilisation and business production, speeding up investment disbursement, and raising investor confidence with an orientation putting people in the centre, the subject, the main resource and the goal of development, he added.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh adresses the event. Photo: MPI

Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said the Government wishes to listen to, share, understand and accompany foreign investors. The Party and the State always consider the foreign-invested one of important part of the national economy, and encourage and create possible condition for them to operate, with healthy competition and equality with other sectors.

The State respects and protects the legitimate and legal rights and interests of investors, ensuring the harmony in benefits of the State, investors and labourers, not criminalising economic and civil relations but strictly handling law breakers to protect those who comply with the law and are responsible to the community and common development, he said.

The Prime Minister spoke highly of the determination, seriousness and effective operations of foreign enterprises in Vietnam in the spirit of trust, sharing, listening, understanding and companionship. These are keys to the successful partnership between the two sides.

Viewing investors’ success as Vietnam’s success, the Government leader said Vietnam always encourage and create all possible conditions for investor to win-win cooperation with the country, he said.

For foreign investment, Vietnam eyes selective FDI attraction, prioritising to attract projects in the fields of high technology, innovation, research and development; facilitating Vietnamese enterprises’ participation in the value chain; promoting digital, green and circular economies towards sustainable development, he noted.

Vietnam is committed to creating the best business environment in line with the OECD Guidelines, maintaining socio-political and macroeconomic stability; removing bottlenecks of the economy in terms of legal institution, infrastructure and human resources; developing supply chains and reducing transaction costs, especially logistic and administrative ones; building stable and highly predictable policies and environment, he stated.

At the event, three FDI firms from Germany, the Republic of Korea, Japan, gave investment commitments worth 3.7 billion USD to the Ministry of Planning and Investment to invest and expand operations in Vietnam, focusing on green production, renewable energy and medical equipment production./.

Bao Linh

Ministry of Planning and Investment