PANO – Since December 2013, local-level external activities have developed in a comprehensive and profound manner, contributing significantly to the national success in all areas from politics to trade, investment, economy, culture, tourism, education and training, labor and overseas Vietnamese affairs, said Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung when giving an interview to the press.
The People’s Army Newspaper’s Online Edition (PANO) introduces a major part of the interview in English below:
Reporter: Could you please tell us outstanding results in local-level external activities?
Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung: Since December 2013, local-level external activities have increased in terms of both domain and intensity and contributed much to the successes of other areas.
Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung
Regarding politics, localities across the country developed bilateral and interprovincial and interregional mechanisms with foreign partners. These include bilateral relations between Vietnamese and Lao or Cambodian localities, Vietnamese and French, Japanese or US localities; interprovincial and interregional relations among localities of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, East-West corridor cooperation, between the seven northern Vietnamese provinces and the two Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan. Provinces and cities across the country have signed 119 local-level cooperation agreements with their foreign counterparts and 230 memorandums of understanding with foreign organizations and enterprises to mobilize foreign resources for local development. These deals involve various areas, including socio-economics, healthcare, education, environment, ecology, agricultural development, investment and financial aid, contributing to maintaining local socio-political stability and security.
In economic terms, although the global economy remains stuck in low gear, localities have still attracted a good deal of foreign investment. Foreign investment in all provinces and cities has totaled US$ 51.53 billion while non-governmental foreign assistance is released some US$ 300 million per year. Some localities are active in promoting cooperation with foreign partners on hi-tech agricultural production, recyclable energies and response to climate change.
Over the past years, provinces and cities have collaborated closely with the Foreign Ministry in deploying cultural diplomacy, people-to-people diplomacy, information about Vietnam’s international affairs and foreign policies, and overseas Vietnamese affairs. Over the past two years, UNESCO has recognized and re-recognized 10 cultural heritages in localities; the Central and local governments have licensed 1,100 groups of foreign reporters to visit Vietnam to report local socio-economic achievements; and 6,470 local-level officials involved in foreign affairs have participated in international conferences, seminars, workshops or training course on foreign affairs held by the Foreign Ministry.
Regarding border and territorial work, provinces and cities in the country have collaborated closely with the Foreign Ministry in executing foreign affairs tasks and programs. For example, Vietnam and China signed an Agreement to allow boats of the two countries to travel freely along the Bac Luan river, Quang Ninh province, an Agreement on tourism cooperation in Ban Gioc waterfall, Cao Bang province, and co-held a Conference to review 5 years of implementing the three documents on the Vietnam-China land border. Vietnam also accomplished the consolidation and densification of the national border landmarks along the Vietnam-Lao borderline. Vietnam actively cooperates with Cambodia in demarcating the shared borders between the two countries. These activities have been actively participated by involved provinces and cities.
What is more, provinces and cities continue their good relationships with the authorities and border guard forces of neighboring countries, and enhance public education on border laws and regulations and improve people’s awareness of national border sovereignty, with the aim of creating favorable conditions for local people to legally cross the border, maintaining security, social order and safety along the border areas and promoting the border of peace, security and development between Vietnam and its neighbors.
Reporter: What limitations do you think should be overcome to better local-level foreign affairs?
Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung: We should strengthen mechanisms on information exchange between the Foreign Ministry and Vietnam’s representative agencies in foreign countries and provinces and cities across the country. The Foreign Affairs Department under the Foreign Ministry and Vietnam’s representative agencies in foreign countries should support provinces and cities in implementing local-level foreign affairs and attracting foreign resources for local development. In return, provinces and cities should be more active in proposing feasible ideas and giving specific requests, advice and suggestions to the Foreign Ministry and Vietnam’s representative agencies in foreign countries. In general, the two sides should regularly exchange information and update situations on time.
Facts show that many local-level cooperation agreements have then been shelved without directions and roadmaps to implement them. Some localities are not really aware of the benefits of international integration. Local businesses are not active in updating their knowledge of the signed free trade agreements between Vietnam and other countries and information about foreign partners; as a results, they cannot exploit advantages while suffering losses due to lack of knowledge of international law and regulations and information about regional and global economic situations.
These drawbacks require provinces and cities to perfect the organization of their agencies for foreign affairs, and boost training and improve knowledge and expertise for personnel working at the foreign affairs sector.
Earlier this year, two projects to improve knowledge of and expertise in international integration and foreign affairs for workers at the local-level foreign affairs agencies in the 2016-20 period were drawn up by the Foreign Ministry and approved by the Prime Minister. These projects aim to improve abilities and skills of workers of local-level foreign affairs agencies. I hope that provinces and cities will well prepare appropriate and capable personnel for the training courses.
Reporter: Could you reveal local-level foreign affairs tasks and directions for the future?
Deputy Foreign Minister Le Hoai Trung: Under the authorization of the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister will hold the 18th National Foreign Affairs Conference on August 21, themed “Improving the effectiveness of local-level foreign affairs, serving development and integration.” The event will serve as a forum for officials at both Central and local levels and representatives of Vietnam’s diplomat Corps in foreign countries to review the implementation of the tasks set at the 17th Conference, to exchange information and ideas, to discuss measures to overcome limitations and weaknesses, and to work out directions and central tasks for the next 5 years.
I think, local-level foreign affairs should closely follow the directions for foreign affairs and international integration defined in the 12th National Party Congress. Major tasks for provinces and cities include:
First, they should deploy their tasks on foreign affairs in an active and proactive manner, which are focused on economic cooperation. The Foreign Affairs Department under the Foreign Ministry and Vietnam’s representative agencies should actively support localities in connecting them with foreign partners and attracting more investment from foreign businesses in localities.
Second, provinces and cities should kick off the implementation of signed deals, and strengthen cooperation with foreign partners toward concrete and practical outcomes. Localities should actively participate in border management, citizen protection, people-to-people diplomacy and cultural diplomacy.
Finally, provinces and cities should complete and perfect the organization of their foreign affairs agencies, continue training courses on foreign affairs knowledge and expertise and foreign languages for foreign affairs workers.
Reporter: Thank you, Mr. Deputy Foreign Minister.
Translated by Thu Nguyen