NA Vice Chairman pays working visit to Egypt

This marks the first conference in a series of meetings expected to be held monthly by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order to assess the global and regional situation, as well as the implementation of economic diplomacy for development. This will serve to outline orientations for implementation moving forward in line with domestic needs and the Government's focus on socio-economic management.

Chaired by Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, the meeting saw the participation of Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu, head of the Steering Committee for Economic Diplomacy, alongside numerous leaders of several units of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This is along with more than 90 ambassadors and heads of Vietnamese representative offices based abroad.

As part of his opening speech at the function Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Minh Vu emphasised that economic diplomacy this year has largely focused on domestic needs and major foreign policy orientations of the 13th National Party Congress, as well as the directives of Party and Government leaders.

Recent time has seen economic diplomacy promptly shifted its focus from vaccine diplomacy for the cause of pandemic prevention and control to promoting economic recovery and boosting socio-economic development to make practical and effective contributions to the country's achievements over the past 10 months.

However, the global economic situation is anticipated to continue facing difficulties, thereby putting pressure on developing and open economies like Vietnam through the added risk of recession, global inflation, and supply chain disruption.

Faced with that situation, the Government therefore places great expectations on economic diplomacy in enhancing advisory work, thus contributing to the goal of achieving macroeconomic stability and sustainable economic growth.

Upon addressing the meeting, Minister Son noted that the Secretariat issued Directive No. 15 dated August 10 on economic diplomacy to serve development to 2030. This shows that economic diplomacy has entered a new stage of development which will be implemented more effectively and substantively moving forward.

The Minister therefore affirmed that economic diplomacy has become the primary task of Vietnamese representative missions abroad, while praising ambassadors and heads of representative missions who have made many positive contributions to the results of socio-economic recovery this year.

Amid international and regional economies facing plenty of complex and unpredictable difficulties, the Minister requested that units and heads of representative missions continue promoting research, offering advice, and giving forecast on economic strategies

It is therefore necessary to closely monitor the international and regional economic developments, make an in-depth assessment of new economic linkage initiatives, and supply chain shifting trends, whilst promptly finding opportunities to attract greater investment. This should mainly occur in the fields of high technology, green energy, digital transformation, and high-tech agriculture.

This should be done through supporting enterprises and localities enhancing relations with major foreign partners and groups, seeking new areas, fields, and mechanisms in which to further promote the task of expanding export markets.

Minister Son suggested that each Ambassador and head of representative agencies abroad continue to uphold their responsibilities before the Party and people. This is along with utilising lessons learned from "vaccine diplomacy" in economic diplomacy as a means of maintaining its growth momentum and realising socio-economic development goals set out by the 13th National Party Congress.