Việt Nam and Francophonie eye further cooperation

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn speaks at the summit. VnExpress News Photo Vân Nguyễn 

HÀ NỘI — The Việt Nam-Francophonie High-level Economic Summit was held on Thursday, highlighting the cooperation opportunities in agriculture, sustainable energy and digital transformation between Việt Nam and the Francophonie community.

The summit takes place on March 24 and 25, aiming to introduce strategic orientations, investment opportunities and environment in Việt Nam.

It features face-to-face meetings between businesses and business tours, contributing to promoting economic-commercial cooperation between businesses within Francophonie and Vietnamese partners.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Bình Minh said: “Agriculture, sustainable energy and digital transformation that the summit discusses are the three areas that Việt Nam has strengths in and has a need for international cooperation in the coming years.”

“With the awareness that the implementation of economic recovery and development goals cannot be successful without the active participation of the business community, the Vietnamese government always pays attention and listens to the business community’s voice and recommendations as well as supports them to overcome difficulties and obstacles,” he said.

The country has also worked on improving the legal framework to meet the needs of both domestic and foreign businesses in Việt Nam, he said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Bùi Thanh Sơn said: “The foreign affairs ministry will make every effort to support Vietnamese enterprises to invest and do business abroad, including in Francophone countries, especially in fields with great potential such as agriculture, industry, processing, renewable energy, digital products and services.

“Việt Nam always appreciates and participates in fostering cooperation in Francophone, which is in line with the country’s policy of multilateralisation and diversifying foreign relations.

“Việt Nam has always advocated promoting the Francophone economic cooperation so that the Francophone community becomes a place of exchange, cooperation, solidarity, innovation, development and creativity, serving the interests of all countries,” he said.

“In the context of post-pandemic recovery, the demand for face-to-face meetings and exchanges of business cooperation and investment with countries in the Francophone community is huge. The participation of a large number of member countries is the basis for countries to cooperate more deeply.”

Secretary-General of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie Louise Mushikiwabo said the organisation has identified three key areas of cooperation with Việt Nam to help create more businesses to participate more deeply in global value chains. They are agriculture, forestry and food processing; renewable energy and innovation; and digital transformation.

“We look forward to furthering the development of these three priority areas, and to do so, it is our duty to overcome challenges and difficulties to forge business partnership agreements among member countries of Francophonie, and between Vietnamese businesses and partners of the Francophone community,” she said.

She added that the promotion of business cooperation not only serves the interests of each member of the Francophonie but also contributes to the realisation of the global sustainable development goals.

The Secretary-General said Việt Nam is a country that plays an important role in the Francophone community.

It is one of the founding countries of the Francophonie and one of the leading countries in growth in the Asia Pacific.

Representatives from Việt Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and Gabon’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food exchanged a Letter of Intent for Cooperation and Memorandum of Cooperation. Việt Nam’s Association of Tea also exchanged the Letter of Intent with the national Tea Association of Rwanda.

The Francophonie is an institution, dedicated since 1970 to promoting the French language and political, educational, economic and cultural cooperation among the 88 member countries of the Organisation internationale of la Francophonie (OIF) (International Organisation of La Francophonie). — VnExpress News