Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on January 22 afternoon (local time) attended and delivered a speech at the discussion session themed ASEAN: Connecting to reach out moderated by President of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Borge Brende, within the framework of the 55th annual meeting of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland.
Malaysian PM Anwar Ibrahim, Chief Adviser (head of the interim government) of Bangladesh Muhammad Yunus, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Myanmar Julie Bishop and Non-Executive Independent Chair of the Board of Directors of Mastercard Merit Janow also joined the discussion.
At the session, Malaysian PM Anwar shared three major priorities in the ASEAN Chairmanship Year 2025: Ensuring energy infrastructure for the region, especially green energy and alternative energy; Promoting connectivity within ASEAN, especially prioritising the exploitation of the strengths of artificial intelligence; and Climate change response.
Speakers all highly appreciated the role, position and development prospects of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). ASEAN not only affirms itself as a region full of economic vitality, one of the engines of global growth, but also has the opportunity to pioneer the transformation into the intelligent age. ASEAN's special advantage is the creative and entrepreneurial spirit coming from the young generation, a digital generation that is expected to be the new growth engine of the region.
Sharing that as the economy with the highest growth in ASEAN, PM Chinh said that the intelligent age poses many great challenges but it is an inevitable path. He emphasised that ASEAN needs to enter the intelligent age with an ambitious mindset, ready to think deep and do big, using science and technology, innovation and digital transformation as new driving forces to create breakthroughs for regional growth.
Sharing his vision of ASEAN in the future, the Vietnamese leader emphasised that in the intelligent age, a successful ASEAN needs to firmly ensure six elements: in terms of politics and security, it must be peaceful, stable, and without war; the economy must develop quickly and sustainably; regarding culture, it is necessary to promote unity in diversity, both developing ASEAN identity and preserving the identity of each member; regarding the environment, it must ensure sustainable exploitation and use, protecting the environment for future generations; in terms of society, it is necessary to ensure progress and social justice, inclusive development and leaving no one behind. To firmly step into the intelligent age, he stressed that Vietnam cannot develop at an average speed as usual.
PM Chinh highlighted Vietnam's determination to develop science, technology, innovation and digitalisation through three strategic priorities of institutions, infrastructure and human resources. In terms of institutions, Vietnam has just issued Resolution 57 on the breakthrough development of science, technology, innovation and national digital transformation along with a number of laws and regulations to provide a legal and institutional framework to promote the national science, technology and innovation ecosystem.
Regarding infrastructure, Vietnam will develop information technology infrastructure, especially digital databases, as a core of growth. In terms of human resources, Vietnam will prepare a quality workforce, focusing on emerging industries such as green transition and digitalisation, knowledge economy, focusing on fields that Vietnam has strengths, especially in mathematics and logical thinking, he said.
The PM called for cooperation and connection between ASEAN and the world, and between Vietnam and ASEAN countries to develop together and move forward together to exploit the world’s intelligence to serve common development goals.
Regarding the Myanmar issue, PM Chinh expressed his firm belief that with solidarity and unity for their common goals, ASEAN will contribute to helping peace, stability and happiness return to the Myanmar people soon.
The Vietnamese leader’s frank sharing and profound comments on the vision and strategy of ASEAN in the future received response and agreement from the speakers as well as a large number of delegates.
This is the last activity of the Vietnamese PM at the 55th WEF annual meeting. On the evening of the same day, PM Chinh, his spouse and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam left Switzerland to return home, successfully concluding their official visits to the Republic of Poland and the Czech Republic, and attendance at the WEF annual meeting and bilateral activities in Switzerland.
