President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc had talks with Chief Executive of the Hong Kong (China) Special Administrative Region Lee Ka-chiu in Bangkok on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

BANGKOK — President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc on Saturday met with Chief Executive of the Hong Kong (China) Special Administrative Region Lee Ka-chiu and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva on the sidelines of the 29th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Thailand.

Meeting the Hong Kong leader, President Phúc expressed his wish for strengthened exchanges between the authorities, businesses and people of the two sides. He invited Lee to soon visit Việt Nam.

Phúc welcomed Hong Kong firms to invest in Việt Nam’s sustainable and environmentally friendly fields, and hoped they will support Vietnamese enterprises’ participation in trade, investment and tourism promotion activities in Hong Kong.

The State leader said he wants Việt Nam and Hong Kong to boost collaboration in economy, trade, and investment toward pushing their bilateral trade to US$50 billion in the next five years; and to expand engagements in culture, education, tourism, and labour.

For his part, Lee affirmed that Hong Kong values and is willing to strengthen mutually beneficial cooperation with Việt Nam in various fields.

Agreeing with the five-year trade goal towards making Việt Nam into Hong Kong's largest trading partner in ASEAN, he stressed his willingness to promote the bilateral people-to-people exchanges, including in tourism, education and labour.

He said he hopes the sides will coordinate in immigration management.

President Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Kristalina Georgieva. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

At the meeting with the IMF Managing Director, the President lauded joint works between Việt Nam and the fund so far, particularly IMF’s consultations on Việt Nam’s macro-economic management, restructuring, and growth model innovation.

Given the context that the global economy is volatile with increasing inflation, the economic growth of many countries and regions is slowing down, and the ensuring of food and energy security is facing many difficulties, Phúc stated Việt Nam, IMF and other nations must strengthen collaboration and coordination of policies and guidelines to effectively deal with such issues.

Georgieva said she wishes Việt Nam to make further contributions to the global agenda of transforming growth models and securing supply chains.

The leader said that the IMF will step up support and advice for Việt Nam in economic management and growth model renovation.

On the afternoon of the same day, the President and his entourage left Thailand for Việt Nam, successfully concluding his official visit to the nation and attendance in the 29th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting. — VNS