French official interested in Vietnam’s choices for development

Secretary General of the France – Vietnam Friendship Association Jean-Pierre Archambault has expressed his interest in Vietnam’s sound choices for development, which were mentioned in an article on several theoretical and practical issues on socialism and the path towards socialism in Vietnam by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong.

General Secretary of the Communist Party of ietnam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong

In an interview recently granted to the Vietnam News Agency in Paris, Archambault said Trong pointed out that Vietnam's development path is “national independence and socialism”, “not choosing capitalism”, and “development of socialist-oriented market economy”. He said these are sound choices that were decided early and have been maintained continuously since the 20th century.

Commenting on Vietnam’s renovation cause and development of socialist-oriented market economy, Archambault said Vietnam has achieved considerable progresses. Over the past decade, Vietnam’s economy has grown by 6-7 percent annually with low inflation rate. The rate of poor households was reduced to below 5 percent from 58 percent in 1993. In 2010, Vietnam became a middle-income country with an average income of 2,100 USD per capita.

According to him, it is necessary to review the history to gain an insight into Vietnam’s beginning, thus better understanding its efforts.

He added that Vietnam is still facing challenges such as improving production capacity and competitiveness, uneven development in urban and rural areas, mitigation of climate change impacts.

In the near future, he suggested Vietnam pay more attention to vocational training, application of artificial intelligence and tap strengths in health care.

In his opinion, Vietnam succeeded in regional and global integration thanks to strong political determination of high-ranking leaders. The country formed diplomatic ties with nearly 200 nations and engaged in trade with over 200 countries and territories, and signed strategic partnership agreements with many countries worldwide, including France.

Vietnam has played an active role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and was hailed as one of the most dynamic economies in the region, contributing to propelling the global economy, he said.

The Secretary General added that Vietnam’s election as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure with 192 out of 193 votes has affirmed its stature on international arena and the community’s trust on the country’s foreign policy.

With closer ties in tertiary education and health care, he expressed his belief that bilateral ties will further grow in the near future, particularly in economy./.

VNA