Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc (R) yesterday receives the new Country Director of World Bank (WB), Ousmane Dione, to Việt Nam. — VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc yesterday welcomed the new Country Director of World Bank (WB), Ousmane Dione, to Việt Nam, saying that the WB played an important role in the development of Việt Nam.

The PM appreciated the support of the WB in making the Việt Nam Report 2035 and asked the WB to continue its support in social economic development, especially in the field of poverty alleviation, health and climate change response.

Dione said Việt Nam was a role model for many developing countries to study and confirmed the WB’s continuing support for Việt Nam.

Also yesterday, Phúc received the outgoing Japanese Ambassador to Việt Nam, Hiroshi Fukada, and thanked him for his dedicated services to the meetings between high-ranking leaders of the two countries, particularly the visit to Japan of Vietnamese leaders to attend the expanded G7 Summit in late May. 
He appreciated the ambassador’s efforts to boost bilateral ties in agricultural trade, local co-operation and human resources, hoping that he will continue fostering the Việt Nam-Japan friendship in the future. 
The same day, the Prime Minister had a meeting with Toshiro Mutoh, head of the Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA)’s consulting board for State-owned enterprise and banking restructuring. 
He affirmed that Japan was Việt Nam’s leading economic partner and the second largest investor. 
The Government leader thanked JICA and Toshiro Mutoh for their support for Việt Nam in improving its SOE and banking restructuring capacity, as well as the agency’s investments in high-tech, especially in Việt Nam’s priority areas. 
He called on Japanese experts to continue sharing their experience in divesting State capital from SOEs, managing bad debts and improving bank governance capacity. 
Toshiro Mutoh suggested ways to deal with bad debts and restructure SOEs and banks in Việt Nam, saying the most important job was how to accurately value assets of the enterprises and raise their operation capacity after equitisation. — VNS