 | Minister Ho Duc Phoc: The Finance Sector has successfully completed its financial and budget tasks in 2023 |
| The Minister of Finance chaired the Vietnam – Korea Financial Investment Promotion Conference |
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| View of the working session. |
Speaking at the meeting, Minister Ho Duc Phoc said that the purpose of this delegation’s business trip is to contribute to realizing the goals of the Joint Declaration on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Vietnam and Japan which was just upgraded in November 2023.
Informing Mizuho’s leaders about the Investment Promotion Conference in Japan held on the morning of March 12, the Minister said this was a very good opportunity for businesses and investors between the two countries to connection and exchange, that contributed to promoting investment and trade activities between the two countries.
In addition to the Investment Promotion Conference event, the Ministry of Finance’s working group also had important working meetings with Japanese Government agencies and relevant organizations.
Also at the meeting, the Minister provided preliminary information about the macroeconomic situation and Vietnam’s stock market in the past year. Accordingly, in 2023, GDP growth for the whole year reached 5.05%, which is a great effort in the context of global difficulties.
Public debt management is also a bright spot for Vietnam when public debt only accounts for about 37% of GDP, much lower than the ceiling level of 60% set by the National Assembly. Therefore, Vietnam still has a lot of room to attract capital for development investment.
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| Minister Ho Duc Phoc and the Ministry of Finance’s delegation took souvenir photos with Mizuho Bank leaders. |
The Minister said that Japan is the largest bilateral ODA sponsor in Vietnam. In 2023, the total import-export turnover of the two countries was 45 billion USD. At the same time, we welcome Mizuho to invest in Vietcombank, the leading bank in Vietnam.
Regarding the stock market, the Minister said that, although it has only been established for 25 years, the market has developed rapidly and is increasingly transparent and sustainable.
By the end of February 2024, stock market capitalization had reached nearly 270 billion USD, equivalent to nearly 63% of estimated GDP in 2023; The market has more than 1,600 stocks and fund certificates listed and registered for trading on Stock Exchanges. The number of investors grows strongly with 7.4 million securities accounts, equivalent to 7.2% of the population.
Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Masahiko Kato said that Vietnam is one of Mizuho’s strategic markets through investment cooperation with Vietcombank. Close and effective cooperation at Vietcombank will create an effective bridge for capital flows from Mizuho to businesses in Vietnam, especially in the context that many Japanese businesses see Vietnam as an attractive destination. In Japan, there are many businesses that wish to expand their investment scale in Vietnam and Mizuho always accompanies and supports capital for these businesses.
Simultaneously, he expressed his desire to work with the Ministry of Finance to implement more specific projects, such as supporting the upgrade of Vietnam’s national credit rating.
The Minister also said that Vietnam is continuing to promote investment procedure reform and improve the business investment environment for foreign investors. Regarding tax and customs issues, every year the Ministry of Finance organizes conferences to discuss and remove problems for businesses and investors, including Japanese investors.
Providing further information to Mizuho leaders, the Minister said that Vietnam needs a huge source of capital to invest in development, including international financial sources and foreign investment capital flows as well as domestic financial sources to invest in achieve socio-economic development goals, especially financial resources to implement the goal committed by the Vietnamese government at COP26 to bring net emissions to zero by 2050. Therefore, resources and the need to implement projects on energy conversion, wind power, solar power, hydrogen energy, green transformation and sustainable development are very huge.
Supporting businesses to mobilize capital through the capital market is also one of the promotion focuses to support the provision of medium and long-term capital for businesses and the economy. In the capital market, the Ministry of Finance also encourages businesses to issue green financial instruments and sustainable finance, especially green bonds and climate bonds to mobilize capital to finance green projects, energy conversion projects, environmentally friendly projects.
Vietnam hopes that Mizuho will collaborate with Vietnamese partners to provide quality capital sources, especially capital sources serving the goals of sustainable development, green growth, electricity and energy conversion projects.