Vietnam outlines five directions for OECD-Southeast Asia investment cooperation

Quang proposed that OECD provide continued policy advice and technical support, and share experiences with Southeast Asian countries in building institutions and improving national governance capacity on sustainable investment.

The two sides need to effectively implement the OECD-ASEAN memorandum of understanding, promote priority projects, especially those on taxation, trade and investment facilitation, and standardize and harmonize investment regulations, environmental protection and green investment policies, he said.

He encouraged the two sides to generate motivation for investment cooperation on sustainable development in emerging and key fields, such as energy transition, green growth, digital economy, circular economy, and ecological agriculture.

To this end, he called on OECD members to cooperate with Southeast Asian countries to build high-tech and innovation centers, thereby helping ASEAN develop its full potential and become a supply chain hub as well as a research and development hub globally to respond to climate change.

The Deputy PM asked OECD to help set up foundations for sustainable investment, including upgrading and connecting strategic infrastructure in Southeast Asia, strengthening connectivity between Southeast Asia and OECD, and developing high-quality labour force.

He stressed the need to create sustainable and quality investment cooperation models, taking into account an effective combination of resources from the state, the private sector, and multilateral development banks, with the engagement of countries, regional and global organizations. He expressed his belief that Southeast Asia and OECD would build an exemplary role model for global investment partnership frameworks thanks to their great potential and advantages.

Last but not least, the Vietnamese leader underscored the importance of creating a peaceful and stable environment for cooperation and development, affirming that Vietnam and ASEAN always persist in resolving disputes and disagreements through peaceful solutions.

In the face of escalating conflicts in hot spots around the world, he called on relevant parties to exercise restraint, not take actions to complicate the situation, and soon resume negotiations to resolve disagreements through peaceful measures, on the basis of international law and the United Nations Charter.

This is the second time the OECD-Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum has been held in Hanoi at the discretion of Vietnam and Australia as co-chairs of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme (SEARP) for the period 2022-2025.

The past few years has seen cooperation between OECD and Southeast Asia yield positive gains through effective cooperation mechanisms and active engagement of the business community.

Southeast Asia is part and parcel of the global economy, that possesses the world’s largest free trade agreements (FTAs), and a strategic destination for investment and supply chain diversification, especially in high-tech fields, electronics and semiconductors manufacturing.

The region is also a global leader in new fields such as digital economy, green growth, and circular economy, with strong commitments to carbon neutrality. It boasts great potential for digital transformation with a market size of up to US$1 billion by 2030. Despite COVID-19 and economic uncertainties globally, Southeast Asia attracted more than US$220 billion in foreign direct investment capital last year.