PM Pham Minh Chinh ends working trip to Middle East
VOV.VN - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of Vietnam left Doha for Hanoi on November 1, concluding his Middle East tour that took him to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
The working trip is of significant importance, as it affirms Vietnam’s desires to take relations with the three key countries in the Gulf region to new heights, creating momentum for the comprehensive development of friendship and cooperation across various sectors, serving as a leverage to strengthen relations with other important partners in the Middle East-North Africa region.
The tour has significantly opened up the market for Vietnam’s export goods while attracting high-quality investment from leading global investment funds and corporations. It has expanded cooperation in priority areas for Vietnam, such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, clean energy, green transition, digital transformation, innovation, and the development of the Halal industry, bringing tangible benefits for the country’s development in the near future.
During his stay, the Vietnamese PM engaged in discussions and meetings with high-ranking leaders, ministers, and heads of major corporations and investment funds from the three countries. He spoke at the 8th Future Investment Initiative (FII8) in Saudi Arabia, delivered a policy speech at the UAE Diplomatic Academy, participated in the Vietnam-UAE Business Forum, attended the opening ceremony of the VinFast showroom in the UAE, inaugurated the FPT office in Saudi Arabia, and visited the Ras Laffan industrial complex in Qatar.
The hosting leaders held that they value the relationship with Vietnam in their Look East policy and see Vietnam as a key partner in Southeast Asia. The leaders of the largest investment funds and major corporations in the three countries recognized Vietnam’s development potential and confirmed that they would send delegations to Vietnam after Chinh’s visit to explore investment and business opportunities.
A number of important documents were signed, including a joint statement on upgrading Vietnam-UAE relations to a Comprehensive Partnership, a joint press communique between Vietnam and Qatar, and 33 cooperation documents in areas such as trade-investment, finance, energy, innovation, standards, measurement and quality, education-training, sports, and business cooperation.
The working trip has achieved substantial and breakthrough results in the areas of economic, trade, and investment cooperation. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the UAE marks the 17th free trade agreement that Vietnam has signed, aiming for bilateral trade turnover to reach US$20 billion in the near future.
With Saudi Arabia, both sides agreed on a trade target of US$10 billion and promoted the goal of making Saudi Arabia one of the top investors in Vietnam.
With Qatar, the two countries agreed to work towards increasing bilateral trade turnover in the near future, establish a Joint Working Group on trade, explore the possibility of creating a product exhibition center for Vietnam in Qatar, and enhance cooperation in the financial sector.
In addition to traditional sectors such as security, education, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges, Vietnam identifies innovation, green transition, digital transformation, and the development of the Halal industry as key pillars for future cooperation with these countries.
