Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has urged economic diplomacy to continue creating breakthroughs to serve the nation’s goal of achieving annual double-digit growth starting from 2026.
He made the request during an online conference with Vietnamese representative agencies abroad on January 10, in which the PM demanded that economic diplomacy be rooted in the principles of "harmonized interests and shared risks."
He emphasized the need to decisively implement the Party and State’s orientations and policies, particularly strategic resolutions and the Resolution of the upcoming 14th National Party Congress.
PM Chinh directed that priority be given to creating breakthroughs in international cooperation regarding science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, and green transition. Other key areas include sustainable energy development, smart cities, and tourism.
He also highlighted the importance of attracting major tech corporations and the community of overseas Vietnamese scientists, while creating favorable conditions for domestic businesses to integrate more deeply into global value chains.
Simultaneously, ministries, sectors, localities, and overseas representative agencies were tasked with refreshing traditional growth drivers. This involves boosting the diversification of markets, products, and supply chains; effectively tapping into potential markets in the Middle East, Africa, and South America; and expanding as well as accelerating the signing of new Free Trade Agreements (FTAs).
Furthermore, the Prime Minister assigned specific tasks to several ambassadors to promote key cooperation projects and initiatives. He called for enhanced support for businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), by building a comprehensive support ecosystem that encompasses finance, logistics, human resources, and legal frameworks.
In the context of complex global economic and political fluctuations, Vietnam’s economic diplomacy in 2025 has been assessed as having “shifted its state,” expanding markets while enhancing the quality and effectiveness of international integration.
In 2025, within the framework of 75 external activities by key national leaders, Vietnam upgraded relations with 17 countries and signed around 350 cooperation agreements—2.5 times higher than in 2024. These activities contributed to strengthening connectivity, attracting external resources, and improving the economy’s resilience to global trade and investment volatility.
Vietnam continued to maintain and consolidate its leading export markets and sustainable investment inflows, while also making breakthroughs in new, high-potential markets such as Latin America, the Middle East–Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. As a result, Vietnam ranked among the world’s top 15 trading nations, with total import-export turnover standing at over $930 billion last year.
Efforts to promote the national brand and Vietnamese products were intensified. Tourism promotion saw significant innovations in both content and form, contributing to a strong recovery of the tourism and service sectors and supporting economic growth. Over 70 cooperation documents were signed at the government, ministerial, enterprise, academic, and local levels, focusing on science and technology and other long-term strategic fields.
Economic diplomacy also left its mark by connecting Vietnam with leading global technology corporations, facilitating several major investment projects, and supporting Vietnamese tech enterprises in expanding cooperation and gradually reaching international markets. The building and consolidation of a network of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals was strengthened, with a database of about 5,000 experts, scholars, entrepreneurs, and a plan to invite 100 top experts to return to Vietnam for work.
Vietnamese representative missions abroad carried out nearly 500 economic diplomacy activities, supporting more than 150 trade and investment promotion events by localities, contributing to the signing of around 100 international cooperation agreements at the local level.
Google translate