With the theme "Enhancing public-private partnership: Key motivation for comprehensive recovery and inclusivesustainable development and innovation", the dialogue is expected to create opportunities for Vietnam to call on investors and mobilise resources to realise development goals and orientations to restructure the national economy and renew its growth model towards sustainability, and take advantage of investment and technology innovation and digital transformation.
As a not-for-profit foundation operating in the form of a public-private partnership, founded in 1971 by Professor Klaus Schwab, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, WEF currently has about 700 partners who are at the helm of leading global corporations in various fields.
Since Vietnam and the WEF established relations in 1989, their cooperative ties have been enhanced in different spheres. Vietnamese government leaders have regularly attended WEF Davos meetings as well as regional meetings on East Asia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Vietnam has coordinated with the WEF to organise many major socio-economic and diplomatic events in Vietnam, such as the World Economic Forum on East Asia (2010), the World Economic Forum on the Mekong Region (2016) and the World Economic Forum on ASEAN (2018), which are considered the most successful of the WEF's regional conferences.
The WEF was one of the first forums to discuss the fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) and is currently working on a number of concrete and substantive initiatives such as the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the US, India, and Japan; the Centre for Cybersecurity with the participation of 92 leading technology solution partners.
For Vietnam, on the basis of taking advantage of WEF's information and the expert resources on which WEF issues have strengths, especially in improving the competitiveness of the economy and the Industry 4.0, the WEF has regularly supported to provide information, organise policy dialogues with leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on development trends and new growth drivers in the world to serve relevant reports and research, helping the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to effectively advise the Government's policy-making process.
The positive cooperative relationship between Vietnam and the WEF is reflected in the agreements and cooperation documents between the two sides as well as the WEF's coordination and support with Vietnam in implementing initiatives of ministries and sectors.
In August 2020, implementing the Prime Minister's Resolution, the Ministry of Information and Communications and the WEF signed a Memorandum of Understanding between Vietnam and the WEF on the establishment of the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and linking this centre with network of centres around the world. In November 2020, the Ministry of Information and Communications together with WEF agreed on the content of the draft agreement.
At the World Economic Forum 2019, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and WEF representatives signed a Letter of Intent related to plastic waste treatment and building a circular economy, including content in support of Vietnam in implementation of the Vietnam National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP). The programme gathers and connects public, private and community to synthesize, support, and share experiences and knowledge on plastic waste management. The programme was launched on December 23, 2020 and is continuing to deploy.
Vietnam is also one of the key partners of WEF within the framework of the "New Vision in Agriculture" initiative. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development regularly attendthe annual WEF meetings. Since 2016, the Minister of Industry and Trade has joined the coordination committee for WEF’s project on the future of production system since 2016 and joined the ASEAN Regional Strategy Group in 2017. WEF is also discussing with Vietnamese ministries and agencies about supporting Vietnam to build a National Innovation Centre, withthe possibility of cooperation in implementing a model to promote narrowing the skills gap.
WEF events always attract the participation of the world's topleaders in the fields of politics, business, culture, society, research and academia, to shape agendas at the regional and global levels. The Vietnam National Strategic Dialogue between Vietnam and the World Economic Forum are expected to open up opportunities for Vietnam to promote innovation and creativity, for the sake of sustainable development.
