Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính presents a Friendship Medal of the President to John Paul Pullicino, former Chief Representative of Pfizer Vietnam on the sidelines of the meeting. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Wednesday chaired a meeting with people’s committees of provinces and centrally-run cities and Vietnamese embassies and representative agencies abroad on vaccine diplomacy.

The event, which was held in both face-to-face and virtual forms, focused on reviewing outcomes of the work in the past and drawing lessons to push up economic diplomacy in the new situation.

Opening the meeting, the Government leader said a year ago, the Government issued Resolution 128/NQ-CP on safe, flexible adaptation to and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on the vaccine strategy. The shift has so far proven effective and timely, he said, elaborating that the economy grew strongly from negative growth in the third quarter of 2021 and the country has successfully controlled the pandemic.

Earlier, the Government launched a vaccine strategy with three contents – setting up a COVID-19 vaccine fund, conducting vaccine diplomacy and establishing a Government working group on vaccine diplomacy with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as the core, the PM noted.

"Despite difficulties, we managed to have enough vaccine sources for pandemic prevention and control," he noted.

Highlighting the important role of diplomacy in the country's socio-economic development, the Government leader said that valuable lessons learned from vaccine diplomacy work will apply to economic diplomacy for rapid recovery and sustainable development. — VNS