Vietnam vows to pursue sustainability over costly, rapid growth
People are seen as underlying all actions related to sustainable development.
At a time of global uncertainty, Vietnam's commitment to putting people, environment and culture at the center of development reaffirms the country's determination to achieve sustainability.
| Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son poses for a group photo with delegates at the meeting in Paris on May 2. Photo: baoquocte.vn |
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the global economy will expand by 3.1% in 2024, the same rate as in 2023, and by 3.2% in 2025.
The world's major economies are forecast to grow this year, but the rates are nominal. For example, the US is forecast to expand by 2.6% in 2024 and 1.8% in 2025, while China's growth rates are 4.9% and 4.5% in the two years respectively.
The OECD warns that growth will be uneven across countries and regions as they change their policies on inflation and interest rate management, fiscal spending and debt repayment.
Meanwhile, the global economy remains vulnerable to geopolitical tensions, financial risks and debt, while governments will continue to tighten monetary policy to avoid potentially severe repercussions.
The OECD Ministerial Council, chaired by Japan with Mexico and the Netherlands as vice-chairs on May 2-3 in Paris, France, advised economies to pursue prudent monetary policies to keep inflation under control and to ensure sufficient foreign exchange for trade and debt settlement.
To achieve these goals, economies are recommended to explore science and technology, especially AI-based solutions, to improve productivity and gain advantages. In addition, international cooperation is key to boosting global trade, building green infrastructure and driving digital transformation.
In his remarks, Vietnam's Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said that Vietnam will not seek economic growth at any cost.
"People are the center, the main subject, and the goal of development," the minister told the meeting's opening session, calling on the OECD to take the lead in promoting global cooperation.
The minister called on the OECD to take the lead in promoting global cooperation, in particular:
First, building an innovative global ecosystem that leverages two parallel trends, green and digital transformation, with a focus on innovation, AI and equitable energy transition.
Second, mechanisms for experience-sharing and capacity-building should be created to help countries maximize their human potential, unleash growth drivers, and promote inclusive prosperity.
Third, encouraging OECD countries to provide financial, technical and technological support to non-OECD countries to achieve strategic breakthroughs, especially in human, infrastructure and institutional capacities.
The OECD Southeast Asia Regional Program
The Southeast Asia region has played an important role in the development of the organization, according to government officials at the OECD meeting. They also highlighted the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Program (SEARP) as helping to bridge Southeast Asia and the OECD, bringing the two closer to each other.
| Minister Bui Thanh Son at his meeting with Mathias Cormann, OECD Secretary-General. Photo: baoquocte.vn |
Bui Thanh Son praised Japan's efforts in initiating the program on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. It is the most successful regional program of the OECD with many outstanding results in the past 10 years, he said, adding that Indonesia and Thailand, the two Southeast Asian countries, have applied to join the OECD.
The Minister urged that in the next 10 years, the SEARP program should further promote its role as a bridge for Southeast Asian countries to participate more deeply and substantively in the global governance process, especially in areas such as green transition, tax cooperation, AI, and others. SEARP should enable ASEAN countries to become a destination for high-quality investment flows and to advance the reform agenda towards becoming economies with high governance standards that are environmentally friendly and socially harmonious.
Talks with government, organization leaders
On the sidelines of the OECD meeting, Minister Son reaffirmed Vietnam's sustainability policy in his meetings with government leaders and executives of the organization.
Speaking with Mr. Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD, the Vietnamese official expected the organization to further cooperate with Vietnam to carry out two key tasks, including the implementation of the 15 missions under the Vietnam-OECD Action Plan for 2022-2026 and more participation in activities organized by the organization.
For his part, Mr. Mathias Cormann, Secretary General of the OECD, appreciated the relationship between Vietnam and the OECD and highlighted Vietnam's proactive participation in the organization's member countries.
He pledged the OECD's commitment to continue working with Vietnam to better implement the SEARP program and help the country properly adopt international governance practices.
Minister Son told Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa that Vietnam hopes to receive more support from Japan to implement investment projects and deepen bilateral ties, in response to which Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa stressed that Japan fully supports Vietnam and Southeast Asia in sustainable development and highly appreciates the ideas Vietnam has brought to the OECD meeting.
