KUALA LUMPUR – Việt Nam will continue integrating into the world, strengthening solidarity, and making responsible contributions to building the ASEAN Community, Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng announced to the 25th World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN that opened in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia yesterday. 

Amid opportunities and challenges faced by ASEAN, Dũng said sustainable and inclusive development was a crucial goal in Việt Nam’s development strategies and plans. 

In the foreseeable future, Việt Nam would continue with comprehensive reforms, economic restructuring, and shift to economically, socially and environmentally sustainable growth models, he said.  The country would strive to fine-tune its market economy mechanism, as well as to improve its business climate and human resources quality via comprehensive reform of education-training and infrastructure improvements, particularly in rural areas. 

In his speech at the opening of the forum, “Shaping the ASEAN agenda for growth and inclusiveness,” Malaysian PM Najib Razak said ASEAN was the seventh largest economic bloc in the world and had room for increasing internal trade by 30 percent by 2020. 

Participants shared the view that ASEAN should strengthen mechanisms, as well as improve human resources, infrastructure and connectivity among member states. 

Attending a high-level dialogue on the fourth industrial revolution, Deputy PM Dũng, Malaysian PM Najib Razak, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, and Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla discussed the potential, opportunities and challenges facing the revolution. 

The Deputy PM and Malaysian PM Razak pledged to carry out the Việt Nam–Malaysia action programme for 2016-18 and boost trade, investment and labour ties. 

The Vietnamese official and the WEF Managing Director Philipp Rosler agreed on increased joint work on WEF initiatives and activities, as well as thorough preparations for the WEF-Mekong conference to be held in Việt Nam in late October. 

Dũng and Vice President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Stephen Groff are committed to accelerating infrastructure, climate change prevention, economic restructuring, and poverty reduction projects between 2016 and 2020. 

Both sides will work together closely to prepare for the sixth Greater Mekong Sub-region Summit in Việt Nam in late 2017. — VNS