The ASEAN Business Community is the momentum for the economic linkage, creating a new impetus for trade and investment development within the bloc, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
Addressing the 3rd Bloomberg ASEAN Business Summit in Hanoi on December 8, he stressed the community plays an important role in initiating creative start-up ideas.
Vietnam is joining ASEAN efforts to further strengthen and deepen the intra-bloc cooperation, he said, noting the centre role of ASEAN in the region, especially in economic, trade and investment cooperation have received support of international business communities, including global leading groups.
The world and ASEAN region are facing with great challenges in security, economy, food, monetary, climate change, and protectionism. However, the 4th industrial revolution brought great opportunities to development, he said.
He urged for closer cooperation in economic and transport infrastructure development, thus facilitating cross-border trade and investment.
ASEAN member nations need to promote renovation and creativeness, improve their competiveness, and engage more in the global supply in order to achieve higher added values, he stressed.
While expressing the hope that outside investors will seek win-win cooperation opportunities with ASEAN partners, Phuc affirmed that the Vietnamese Government is working hard to improve investment and business climate, and welcomes all enterprises from ASEAN and other regions to the country.
This is the first event of this kind that brought together ASEAN leaders working in trade and finance, and representatives of government agencies from the regional nations. It focused on measures to overcome challenges and define important opportunities for growth, cooperation and development in the region.
Participants assessed policies in the ASEAN Economic Community, and debated issues related to cross-border investment in the field of consumer products, infrastructure, goods, energy, finance-banking, communications andtechnology.
ASEAN, comprising Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Myanmar, Malaysia, Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia and Brunei, forms a consumption market of 600 million people and a GDP of nearly 3 trillion USD a year./.