Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaking at the meeting. Photo: VOV

The event was connected with the overseas representative agencies and the People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities via videoconference.

PM Chinh said economic diplomacy has obtained many encouraging, substantive, and effective achievements. He held that since there are more difficulties and challenges than opportunities and advantages at present, the overseas representative agencies should focus on bolstering exports, and to do that, they need to promote export markets by helping foster economic, trade, investment partnerships, people-to-people exchanges, and tourism.

As Vietnam is stepping up new growth drivers, which are digital economy, circular economy, green economy, sharing economy, and knowledge-based economy, with innovation, science-technology, and the fourth Industrial Revolution being the stepping stone for development, he said, adding that the agencies should increase attracting investment to help fuel the new growth drivers.

The PM asked for stepping up the expansion of Middle Eastern and South American markets, increasing the export of Halal products, and pressing on with the negotiation and signing of FTAs with countries in the Middle East, Africa, and South America. The overseas representative agencies should keep a close watch on other countries’ trade remedies against Vietnamese exports in order to carry out early response measures, he said.

The Prime Minister also requested Vietnamese representative agencies and local governments to closely connect and listen to the needs of each side to promptly grasp the trends of the global economy and maximize the development advantages of each locality.