The WB Vice President sang these praises during an interview given to reporters of the Online Edition of the People’s Army Newspaper on the topic of connection between globalization and hunger elimination and poverty reduction in the framework of the ongoing 2017 APEC CEO Summit in the Central city of Da Nang.
Stressing that globalization greatly impacts global growth and efforts in hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, Ms. Kwakwa said that in the past, the globe enjoyed a rapid GDP growth together with fast trade growth. At that time, millions of people still lived in poverty. However, the poverty rate reduced slightly in comparison with previous times.
WB Vice President for the East Asia and Pacific Victoria Kwakwa
She gave an example that looking at the income of the richest in the US or Sweden and that of the poorest in Malawi, one could see the narrowed gap between the world’s rich and poor. Therefore, there was an active connection between global growth and global welfare.
Noting that Vietnam has gained many achievements in hunger elimination and poverty reduction, the WB Vice President reminded that the work hinged much on trade; thus, if solutions to having access to global trade have not been rolled out, such a program targeting hunger and poverty would falter there. So, she advised Vietnam to identify best approaches to globalization to take advantage of it in order to boost inclusive growth.
She underscored that trade has helped promote growth in Vietnam, including, importantly, inclusive growth.
Emphasizing Vietnam’s economy is in a good position, she noted that Vietnam should be aware of risks that might be posed by globalization and draw lessons from mistakes made in the past by the US and several European countries.
She also suggested Vietnam pay attention to skills training for involved people so that they could sooner get adapted to working and doing business in other fields and Vietnam should consider practical market niches that global trade might create and then develop policy-making to help all people become aware of them.
Vietnam needs to prepare personnel who could work in the fields related to automation and technology application, she said, adding that what Vietnam needs is to improve skills for those who are able to quickly adapt to new environments or sectors.
Saying APEC is a big ‘playground’ and contributes much to Vietnam’s and global GDP, and trade and foreign investment capital in Vietnam are heavily associated with APEC member economies, the WB Vice-President stressed that Vietnam should focus further attention on strengthening its ties with other APEC member economies so as to promote growth and create more jobs in the country.
By Yen Hung-Hai Toan
Translated by Mai Huong