Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosted a reception in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia, on October 29 afternoon (local time) for Amin Al-Nasser, President and CEO of Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest companies in both scale and revenue, with turnover reaching nearly US$500 billion in 2023 and a total asset exceeding $660 billion.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh is in Riyadh for attendance at the 8th Edition of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) and working visit to Saudi Arabia.
Congratulating Vietnam on its socio-economic achievements, Al-Nasser said Saudi Aramco is highly interested in the Asian market, including Vietnam, which he described as a promising market.
Saudi Aramco wants to invest in oil refining, petrochemical and petrol distribution in Vietnam, he said, suggesting the PM, ministries, agencies and localities of Vietnam to create favourable conditions for Saudi Aramco to successfully enhance cooperation with Vietnamese partners.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, in turn, hailed Saudi Aramco's interest and investment cooperation plans in Vietnam, particularly with the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam), firstly in the field of oil and gas.
He said Vietnam boasts a long coastline of over 3,000 km and a favourable location to approach the vast Asian market.
Vietnam also holds huge potential and is developing its oil and gas industry from oil and gas exploration to oil refining, petrochemical and trade, he said, adding that Petrovietnam possesses extensive experiences and a plentiful, quality workforce, making it a promising partner with numerous upstream, midstream, and downstream oil and gas projects available for collaboration.
The Vietnamese leader urged Saudi Aramco and Petrovietnam to continue their discussions to reach a high level of consensus and define specific cooperation projects. He encouraged Saudi Aramco to invest in Vietnam's oil refining, storage and distribution, not only for the domestic market but also for the broader region and global markets.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called on Aramco to invest in Vietnam's oil and gas sector, especially large petrochemical and refining projects, and develop cooperation in trading oil, gas, and petrochemical products such as crude oil, liquefied petroleum gas, plastic pellets, and fertilisers.
He said that the country is strongly improving the investment environment, reforming administrative procedures towards transparency, reducing compliance costs, boosting power decentralisation, and promoting investment in strategic infrastructure in a way that ensures favourale regulations, seamless infrastructure, and smart governance so as to reduce expenses and increase competitiveness for products and businesses.
Vietnam is committed to accompanying and creating favorable conditions for foreign investors, including Saudi Aramco and other Saudi Arabian enterprises, to invest and do business efficiently and sustainably, the PM affirmed.
For his part, Al-Nasser said that he will continue to actively negotiate with Petrovietnam and soon send a working delegation to the country to seek cooperation and investment opportunities through specific projects as suggested by the Vietnamese PM.
After the meeting, in the presence of the PM, Petrovietnam and Saudi Aramco signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in oil and gas trading.
