Vietnam and OECD to boost cooperation

PANO - A roundtable, entitled “New perspectives for Vietnam-OECD cooperation: Toward inclusive growth”, was held on November 18^th in Hanoi by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

In his opening speech, Head of MOFA’s Economic Affairs Department Vu Quang Minh said that as a member of OECD since 2008, Vietnam has actively contributed to OECD’s Development Assistance Committee. The country is already planning to closely coordinate with the organization to effectively implement Southeast Asian programs and combine them with Vietnam-OECD cooperation.

The roundtable

Mr. Minh also stressed that Vietnam would like OECD to further assist Vietnam in economic reform and the improved effectiveness of international integration through bilateral, trilateral and regional cooperation frameworks.

Meanwhile, OECD representative Alessandro Goglio said that Vietnam has made important progress in its national industrialization and modernization maintained a high economic growth rate and gained impressive achievements in hunger elimination and poverty reduction.

According to Mr. Goglio, Vietnam needs to continue to develop its infrastructure, reform state-owned enterprises, improve the investment environment, complete working and social policies in order to raise productivity and to achieve the goal of inclusive growth.

He confirmed that OECD would boost its cooperation with Vietnam in the fields that Vietnam prioritizes in its coming development and integration period. It will support Vietnam in implementing its socio-economic development plan for the 2016-2020 period, and in raising the efficiency of international integration in a far-reaching manner.

Also at the forum, delegates reviewed Vietnam-OECD cooperation in the 2012-2015 period, discussed their cooperation directions for the 2016-2020 period, focusing on making the most of resources from the Southeast Asian program and which cooperation fields need to be prioritized to help Vietnam attain its sustainable and inclusive development goals in the 2016-2020 period.