Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh addressed the conference 'Rediscovering Viet Nam' held in San Francisco on May 17 (US time). — VNA/VNS Photo
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on May 17 (local time) attended the US-Viet Nam trade, investment, and tourism promotion conference themed ‘Rediscovering Viet Nam’ in San Francisco.
The conference, held by the national carrier Vietnam Airlines and two travel groups – Saigontourist Group and Thien Minh Group – to boost the cooperation between the enterprises of the two countries and to introduce the image of Viet Nam to US friends and partners.
Addressing the event, PM Chinh stressed Viet Nam’s consistent foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, diversification, multilateralisation, and commitment to be a good friend, a reliable partner, a responsible member of the international community; and the building of an independent and self-reliant economy associated with active, proactive, extensive international integration with substance and effectiveness.
The Government leader affirmed that economic, investment, trade and tourism cooperation is an important pillar in the Viet Nam-US relationship.
In the very challenging year of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, two-way trade still reached US$112 billion, accounting for nearly one-third of the total US-ASEAN trade turnover.
Viet Nam-US trade growth rate has hit 17-20 per cent year on year. The US is Viet Nam’s second largest partner while Viet Nam is the US’ 9th largest, he noted, adding that trade between the two countries has contributed to making Viet Nam one of the 20 largest import-export countries in the world.
PM expected the economic cooperation between Viet Nam and the US to continue to flourish, mentioning a number of priority areas for Viet Nam such as capital market development, digital transformation, energy transformation, climate change response, tourism, and trade, and suggested partners in the US study opportunities and advance cooperation in these fields.
He urged US partners to also support Viet Nam in policy consultation, capital, human resources, infrastructure, technology, and governance.
In terms of tourism, the US is continually in the list of Viet Nam’s biggest markets. Before the pandemic, the number of tourists from the US reached more than 746,000 arrivals in 2019, with the year-on-year growth rate in the 2014-19 averaging 11 per cent, PM Chinh said.
The PM said that thanks to internal efforts and the support of friends and international partners, Viet Nam has put COVID-19 under control domestically and has completely reopened tourism and air routes.
The first major group of tourists to return to Viet Nam after the official resumption of inbound and outbound tourism from March 15, 2022 was a US delegation, he noted.
PM called on foreign investors, including ones from the US, to continue to cooperate with Viet Nam in trade and tourism in the spirit of ‘harmonised benefits, shared risks' as the COVID-19 pandemic subsides and especially after this visit where the two countries' leaders have arrived at agreements on boosting ties.
US ambassador to Viet Nam Marc E. Knapper, who accompanied Chinh on the visit to the US, highly values this event and stressed that aviation, tourism, education and people-to-people exchanges are an important pillar in the bilateral relations.
For example, before the pandemic, there were up to 30,000 Vietnamese students in the US and the American diplomat said he is committed to helping roll out measures to double this figure, while at the same time, bring more US students to study in Viet Nam.
At the event, Vietnam Airlines has also introduced the recent direct flight between Viet Nam and the US – with four flights a week between San Francisco and HCM City on wide-body aircrafts like Airbus A350 and Boeing 787.
Meanwhile, Saigontourist Group affirms that it will utilise its partner network in the US and North America, contributing to promoting tourism in Viet Nam and HCM City, to facilitate economic recovery and increase tourist draw from these lucrative markets, especially in product lines that are preferred by Americans such as wellness tourism, premium travel and beach tourism.
Thien Minh Group also said this is the ideal time to push for Vietnamese airlines and tourism presence in the US.
At the conference, Vietnamese businesses exchanged and discussed with US partners about potential goods and services that can be exported to Viet Nam, and business investment opportunities in the US.
On the occasion, PM Chinh, the US ambassador and San Francisco city's leadership witnessed the exchange of cooperation documents between Vietnamese and American companies.
Saigontourist Group, Thien Minh Group and Vietnam Airlines have exchanged memorandums of understanding with many important US travel partners.
There were also technology cooperation agreements between the State-controlled Viet Nam Posts and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and US' Cisco Corporation, and an educational partnership between EMG Education Group and the University of California Irvine and the GITA Academy.
The event also introduced to US partners and consumers the outstanding agricultural products of Viet Nam. Bac Giang Province's People’s Committee, Vietnam Airlines and US' Emission Resources have signed a cooperation agreement on export promotion and consumption of lychee and Bac Giang agricultural products.
Viet Nam’s budget carrier Vietjet and UPS, the world's leading shipping and logistics group, have also reached an agreement to transport international goods through the two sides’ extensive regional and global network and logistics infrastructure. — VNS