HÀ NỘI — A friend, a trustworthy partner and an active, responsible member of the international community, Việt Nam will actively make contributions to the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC) in order to join other countries and international partners in the search for ways to achieve sustainable development goals (SDGs), stated Vietnamese Ambassador to Germany Vũ Quang Minh.

In an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency on the thresholds of Deputy Prime Minister Hồ Đức Phớc's German trip from October 7-10 for the HSC and bilateral activities, Minh said that the trip aims to continue affirming the country's external policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralisation and diversification, and actively integrating into the world in a comprehensive, extensive and effective manner.

It also aims to affirm Việt Nam's consistent policy of always attaching importance to the strategic partnership with Germany and making bilateral cooperation deeper and more effective, especially in traditional areas such as politics, trade, and investment, and expanding cooperation in new areas with great potential such as energy transition, digital transformation, and labour.

The diplomat held that the HSC, which expects more than 100 delegations, will create a chance for Vietnam to call on countries, international organisations, and funds to cooperate and support Việt Nam in socio-economic development and realising its major goals of digital transformation, green transformation and sustainable development.

HSC is an initiative by German Prime Minister Olaf Scholz. Its objectives include promoting new cross-sectoral and cross-area dialogues and partnerships among governments, businesses, academia, and other stakeholders; seeking measures to accelerate the implementation of the sustainable development goals, including effectively mobilising necessary investments and finance; and implementing the documents of the Future Summit held in September 2024.

Participants at the conference are expected to approve three documents -- document for the future, the global digital document and the declaration on future generations, setting out ambitious actions and goals across all areas of UN cooperation, with a number of major priorities such as increasing resources to accelerate SDG progress, establishing foundational frameworks for digital cooperation and innovation, and reforming international institutions.

The HSC is considered one of the first multilateral, multi-stakeholder conferences after the Future Summit, offering an opportunity for countries and stakeholders to discuss measures to promote the SDGs, many of which are lagging behind schedule, Minh said.

The ambassador underscored Việt Nam's participation in the conference in the context that the country has achieved many great achievements in all aspects, especially in economic development and foreign relations. Currently, Việt Nam is one of the 40 largest economies in the world, one of the 20 countries with the largest trade scale, and an investment destination for many leading corporations in the world.

The country has shared strategic partnership and comprehensive partnership relations with 31 countries, including all five permanent members of the UN Security Council. The UN always considers Việt Nam a typical example in taking the lead in implementing the UN's major priorities such as implementing the Millennium Development Goals, SDGs, peacekeeping, and humanitarian assistance, with strong and serious commitments in many areas, including responding to climate change.

Minh affirmed that the Party and State of Việt Nam always consider sustainable development a priority in socio-economic development to continuously improve the material and spiritual life of the people. Việt Nam has issued a National Action Plan to successfully implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development along with many other legal documents, and recorded many achievements in implementing the SDGs over the recent years.

The diplomat noted that Deputy PM Phớc's Germany trip is to take place in the context that the Việt Nam-Germany strategic partnership is growing across all fields. The two sides will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the bilateral diplomatic relations in 2025, while maintaining regular contacts and cooperation mechanisms.

Germany remains Việt Nam's largest trading partner in the EU, and Việt Nam is Germany's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia. Bilateral trade topped US$11 billion in 2023 according to Việt Nam's data and $17.12 billion according to the German's statistics agency Destatis data as of the end of November 2023.

As of June 2024, Germany had invested in 472 projects in Việt Nam with a total registered capital of $2.76 billion in 37 provinces and cities across the country.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises had run 41 investment projects in Germany with a total registered capital of $292.3 million.

Minh also highlighted fruitful cooperation areas between the two countries, including defence, locality-to-locality collaboration, education-training, science-technology, and especially green growth, energy transition, and climate change response, with Germany's support to Việt Nam in realising commitments within the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP).

He said that Việt Nam and Germany have planned various activites to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations in 2025.

Particularly, the Vietnamese Embassy in Germany will organise a Việt Nam Festival and Việt Nam Days in Germany, and launch the construction of a Việt Nam Community House in Berlin, among others. — VNS