Vietnam always welcomes, encourages and creates conditions for foreign businesses to invest in all fields of agriculture, industry and services towards a green, clean and sustainable direction, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said during an exchange with startup and innovation businesses of the World Economic Forum in Dalian, China, on June 25.

He said the government prioritises developing technology, resources and innovation, noting innovation has become one of the main driving forces behind the country’s economic growth, especially in the era of globalization, international integration and the fourth industrial revolution.

Innovation not only contributes to solving regional and global difficulties and challenges but also promotes the sustainable development of each country in particular and the world in general, stressed the Vietnamese PM.

In this regard, he said Vietnam has taken many practical and effective actions to rev up innovation, including building priority policies to promote innovation and entrepreneurship; drawing up development strategies and programmes with a focus on digital economy, green economy, circular economy, sharing economy, knowledge economy, and especially industries that bring high added value such as big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, semiconductor chips, and hydrogen.

In addition, it has been completing infrastructure systems, developing human resources, especially high-quality human resources, and mobilizing resources, especially finance, technology and management skills, from overseas for innovation.

He assured that the government accompanies, listens to and addresses business concerns towards win-win gains on the principle of the harmony of interests and risk sharing. He said many of the world’s leading technology corporations such as Google, Apple, Intel, Synopsys, Meta, and Nvidia have explored and invested in Vietnam.

The PM stressed the importance of investing in human resources, considering this the key to realizing national development tasks. According to the leader, Vietnam considers education-training a top national policy and it allocates adequate resources for this field. He also revealed that Vietnam is implementing a project to develop human resources for the semiconductor industry, with a view to generating 50,000 engineers for semiconductor chip manufacturing by 2030.

The Prime Minister answered many questions related to preferential policies for innovation businesses, the role of foreign startups in the country’s innovation drive and its transition to the knowledge economy, as well as security and data usage issues.

He said foreign startups are the driving force to spur the development of innovation, as they support technology and knowledge transfer; create competition and promote innovation; enhance international cooperation and step up the transition to the knowledge economy.

The PM agreed that technology development on the one hand brings about benefits, but has risks and downsides on the other hand, saying this is a global problem that impacts all spheres of society. He said Vietnam has issued regulations on information protection, security and data use, alongside pouring investments and introducing solutions to ensure network security.

The leader also discussed many issues related to development plans and opportunities for Vietnamese youth in emerging industries such as artificial intelligence, semiconductor chips, and big data, as well as the degradation of globalization. To address the issues, he proposed that the world have a global, all-people approach, uphold multilateralism and strengthen international solidarity.   

Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is in Dalian for the WEF's 15th Annual Meeting of the New Champions from June 25-27.

Source: VOV