With a view to turning the process of all-round international integration into an effective tool to promote the country’s sustainable development and help firmly maintain national defense and security, the Prime Minister on July 3 issued Directive No. 15/CT-TTg, on further implementation of the Political Bureau’s Directive No. 22, on international integration.
By the directive, the PM requests interdisciplinary steering committees in charge of international integration in politics, security, defense, economics, culture and social affairs, science and technology, and education and training to increase the quality of their consultancy on policymaking and harmoniously operate the coordination mechanism among ministries and sectors.
Specifically, the PM asks for upholding the role of multilateral external relations in support of localities, enterprises and business line associations in expanding their foreign economic relations, intensifying communication about integration opportunities and challenges, especially about the ASEAN community and Vietnam’s new economic and trade commitments, and attaching importance to dialogues with, and receipt and processing of opinions and proposals of, enterprises and people who are directly affected by the integration.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assigned to coordinate with relevant ministries and sectors in setting the country’s multilateral diplomatic orientations toward 2030, training cadres engaged in multilateral external relation work, and studying and including plans on elevation of multilateral external relations in the Party’s and the State’s documents.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade will work with related ministries and sectors and concentrate its efforts on accelerating the finalization, conclusion and preparation for implementation of free trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) and FTAs with the EU and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) while actively implementing newly signed FTAs between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Republic of Korea, and seek to negotiate on new FTAs in order to diversify markets.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Planning and Investment is tasked to study newly emerged economic issues such as strategy for development of the blue economy, network economy, inter-sectoral linkages, interconnected manufacturing value chain, etc.
The People’s Committees of Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh and related provinces and cities are requested to prepare material facilities for upcoming international conferences and events in Vietnam, including events in the APEC year of 2017.-
