PM Phuc: Vietnam greatly appreciates IFC support

On April 11 in Hanoi, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received IFC Vice President for Asia and Pacific Snezana Stoiljkovic, during which he showed his belief that the Vietnam visit by the IFC official will help deepen cooperation between Vietnam and the financial organization.

The Government of Vietnam is launching a national start-up program and wants IFC to support Vietnam in this regard, especially young people, the cabinet leader stated.

The country also expects IFC and other international organizations to invest in the energy sector as it holds huge potential for renewable energy resources, Phuc said, noting that the country wants IFC to cooperate with some Vietnamese financial institutions, and support it in improving its financial management capacity. 

The regional IFC Vice President, in turn, congratulated the Government of Vietnam on yielding positive results in economic management as evidenced by stable economic growth, which provides an important basis for IFC to continue its stronger cooperation with Vietnam in the time to come.

She also pledged more cooperation with Vietnamese corporate and banking sectors to boost their sound development.   

Snezana Stoiljkovic described 2017 as a very successful year for IFC operations in Vietnam, especially in its support for the private economic sector. IFC has been working with the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on new areas of cooperation and IFC desires to cooperate and support Vietnam in attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) by boosting the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as well as investment in agriculture, and renewable energy.

Effective IFC cooperation with Vietnam has significantly contributed to spurring the healthy development of the country’s businesses and banks, she said.

IFC also aspires to support Vietnam in promoting start-ups, especially young entrepreneurs with its funds through IFC partners in the country. IFC is due to have a working session with Ho Chi Minh City leaders to discuss ways to develop the city into a clean and smart city in future.

PM Phuc told his guest that Vietnam always considers the private economic sector as very important as it has great potential, strengths and resources to boost economic development.

He also affirmed the country’s determination to support the private sector to make its growing contributions to GDP. Besides internationally-acclaimed private corporations, Vietnam is seeing the robust growth of businesses, which is projected to hit 1 million enterprises by 2020, the government leader said.

Vietnam is highly resolved to build a growth-facilitating government that serves people and businesses, he said while stressing that the development of the private economic sector becomes an important driving force of the socialist-oriented market economy.  Therefore, it encourages more foreign investors to intensify their investments in this sector.

The country highly appreciates IFC's support for it in recent times and the Government wishes that IFC will continue to stand side by side with Vietnam on its path of development, Phuc said.