Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính attended the opening of the national festival for innovative startups TECHFEST and Week for Hồ Chí Minh City Innovation, Startup and Entrepreneurship WHISE 2021 via videoconference in Hà Nội on December 14.

The opening ceremony was held both online and offline in 63 cities and provinces, and over 20 countries worldwide.

The TECHFEST-WHISE 2021 was co-organised by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the HCM City People’s Committee and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, featuring over 20 activities.

In his speech, PM Chính hailed achievements in innovation this year, which helped bring Việt Nam to the 44th place out of 132 countries and economies in terms of global innovation, and the first position among 34 middle-income countries.

He stressed that all sectors, localities, businesses and people must make efforts for innovation and creativity for the sake of national interests.

In the immediate future, innovation efforts should focus on the fight against COVID-19, economic recovery and development, as well as emerging issues such as climate change, exhaustion of natural resources, aging population, non-traditional security issues, green growth, digital transformation, and those in health care, education, agriculture and poverty reduction.

He asked ministries and agencies to continue fine-tuning mechanisms and attracting resources for innovation and startups, particularly financial resources from investors, professional investment funds, international organisations and the community.

Minister of Science and Technology Huỳnh Thành Đạt, for his part, said over US$1.3 billion was poured into Vietnamese start-ups this year, a record figure despite the pandemic. Over 140 universities and colleges nationwide also launched start-up activities, drawing the attention of major groups as financial investors.

At the event, PM Chính also witnessed the signing of cooperation agreements between the MoST and several major corporations and groups.

Digital, sustainable economy a key trend to follow: overseas representative missions

With increasing globalisation and rising of global wealth, economic diplomacy is now a core activity of Vietnamese representative missions abroad, supporting and contributing to the growth of Vietnamese enterprises in international markets.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of a conference titled ‘Deploying economic diplomacy in service of development, placing enterprises at the centre – Solutions and actions’, Nguyễn Minh Vũ, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, said that the main concern of the Vietnamese business community is to grasp current circumstances and take opportunities to adapt successfully.

Therefore, the event is an opportunity for the heads of Vietnamese representative missions abroad to share information, assess situations, and examine opportunities and challenges for the Vietnamese business community.

The conference, within the framework of the 31st Diplomatic Conference, was launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday morning, with the participation of representatives of leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Việt Nam Chamber of Industry and Commerce (VCCI), Ambassadors, heads of Vietnamese representative missions abroad, and representative of the Vietnamese business community.

The Deputy Minister pointed out that, in recent years, activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnamese representative missions abroad had increasingly focused on facilitation, creating the most favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to invest and establish production in international markets.

“There are three things businesses can continue to rely on in terms of support from Vietnamese representative offices abroad. The first is the source of information, forecasting, and even warnings over trends as well as activities in global markets. Second, it is to support trade promotion and tourism investment in international markets. Lastly, is support to remove difficulties and obstacles in the process of doing business with foreign enterprises,” Vũ said.

Talking about opportunities, at the event, most Vietnamese representative missions abroad came to a consensus that the current development process and impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic had boosted trends in digital economy, and green and sustainable development. The representatives recommended businesses pay more attention to and invest more in these fields.

“Digital economy and green economy are growing strongly, especially during the outbreak of the coronavirus. Under US President Biden, the Government has encouraged companies in environmentally friendly manufacturing, renewable energy production, and digital industries. I think our enterprises can research these fields,” Hà Kim Ngọc, the Ambassador of Việt Nam in the US, said.

The US is a large market and also attracts a lot of investment, the ambassador added.

“Currently, Việt Nam has 200 investment projects in the US. The US market has many opportunities and many difficulties, but if you can enter this market, the probability of success is high,” Ngọc said.

It is also one of Việt Nam’s biggest export markets, but there are still many barriers, such as tariffs and anti-dumping duties.

Similarly, Nguyễn Hoàng Long, the Vietnamese Ambassador in the UK, said that the country was focusing on three main fields, which are green economy, digital economy and the life sciences industry.

Vietnamese companies can also look for more opportunities with the UK, as post-Brexit, the country is boosting cooperation with non-EU markets, considering this a strategy to offset the narrowing of the European market, according to Long. The UK has signed free trade agreements (FTAs) ​​with many countries, including Việt Nam. The UK is also determined to complete negotiations and join the CPTPP this year.

Meanwhile, Nguyễn Mạnh Tuần, the Ambassador of Việt Nam in the UAE, said that there was one more trend at the moment, which was smart consumers.

“In the context of an unstable macroeconomy, including unstable labour market, in poor economies, people tend to spend in a more reasonable and sustainable way, boosting the smart consumer trend,” Tuấn said.

He also suggested the Government should reevaluate strategies towards the UAE as it was witnessing an economic boom.