Vietnam PM reassures foreign investors

VNA

Vietnam will remain a dynamic economy and stable destination for investors, despite the global financial crisis, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at the Bo’ao Forum for Asia (BFA) in China last week.

The PM said Vietnam had grown 6.2 percent in 2008, down from 8.2 percent in 2007, and has political and economic stability that is a strong base for inward investors.

In 2008, foreign direct investment reached US$64 billion, three times more than in 2007, he added.

Addressing the closing event of the three-day summit on April 19 in Hainan Province, PM Dung asserted that the BFA is an ideal setting for Asian politicians, academics and businesspeople to share experiences and ideas for effective regional cooperation.

Asia’s traditional values, lessons learnt from the East Asia economic crisis in the late 1990s, and strong determination would help the region to become a “new driving force” for the world’s economic development, said PM Dung.

He believed China will become the first big economy to recover. Its economy grew by 6.1 percent in the first quarter of this year, though still down from the double-digit figures posted throughout much of the past decade.

In order to improve the economic situation, Vietnam will closely work with Asian countries to boost regional cooperation, especially in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). It will speed up the construction of economic corridors and help realize the GMS Agreement on cross-border transportation.

Emphasizing anti-protectionism and free trade, the Prime Minister asked developed countries to further assist developing nations with capital, technology, market access and trade development.

At the forum, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev accepted an invitation to visit the country soon.

The two leaders agreed to boost stronger mutual cooperation in commerce and industry.

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