Strengthening international solidarity was among the priorities for nations to cope with economic headwinds and make way for stronger recovery, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said while attending the ongoing World Economic Forum (WEF)’s 14th Annual Meeting of the New Champions in Tianjin, China, on Tuesday.

Addressing a session on “Braving the Headwinds: Rewiring Growth Amid Fragility”, moderated by WEF President Borge Brendehind, Chinh said that there were six types of headwinds which were hindering global development and Viet Nam’s development in particular.

The session was the first discussion of the three-day WEF Tianjin, also called Summer Davos, which focuses on the theme of “entrepreneurship: a driver of the world economy”.

Also at the session were New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, Director-General of the World Trade Organisation Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Chairman of China’s Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council Zhang Yuzhuo.

Chinh said the first headwind was an economic recession and rising inflation which had significantly impacted people's lives. The second was adversities caused by the prolonged impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, which could not be addressed in just a few years. The third was geographical competition, mounting protectionism coupled with fragmentation and the lack of solidarity.

Conflicts, including that in Ukraine, were threatening global food and energy security.

Another headwind was that developing countries suffered the most and had limited resilience to external shocks.

The last headwind was climate change, natural disasters and diseases which were taking place more unpredictably.

“We can all feel the impacts of economic headwinds. Viet Nam is no exception,” Chinh said.

To cope with the headwinds, Chinh said that it was essential to take a global and an “entire-people” approach. He stressed that strengthening global solidarity, promoting multilateralism and putting the people at the heart of development was the first priority. “No country can address the global challenges alone,” he said.

Secondly, the focus should be placed on promoting production and business recovery to create jobs, and increase trade, and investment.

Chinh urged international organisations, financial institutions and major economies to raise policies to unlock resources and activate new growth drivers such as digital transformation, green growth, circular economy, diversifying markets, and fighting against protectionism with the priorities to poor and developing countries.

Thirdly, it was necessary to raise appropriate solutions to promote aggregate supply and demand through monetary and fiscal policies, promoting liberalisation of trade and investment, and reducing energy and food prices.

Chinh said the focus should be placed on minimising factors which hindered global development and finding solutions to resolve conflicts.

Finally, it was important to strengthen public-private partnership and create favourable conditions for enterprises, especially those of small and medium sizes.

At the session, Chinh also shared experiences and lessons of Viet Nam from the fight against the pandemic and the process of recovering the economy. He affirmed that Viet Nam continued to focus on three strategic breakthroughs in infrastructure, institutions and human resources.

Viet Nam’s point of view was not to sacrifice equity, social security and environmental protection for growth, he stressed.

Chinh pledged that Viet Nam would continue to create the most favourable conditions for international and domestic enterprises and continue to improve the business and investment environment.

He urged countries, international organisations, including WEF and its members, to continue to provide support to Viet Nam in terms of technology, finance, human resource training and modern governance experience to enable the country to realise its socio-economic development goals.

WEF Borge Brende at the discussion session, said that Viet Nam was growing substantially and playing an increasingly important role in the regional and global economic growth.

Speakers at the session emphasised the importance of strengthening linkages to limit protectionism, fragmentation, separation and disintegration among countries, urging countries to increase the mobilisation of diverse capital resources for green development and response to climate change. — VNS