Vietnam prioritises strengthening relations with WB: top leader

Vietnam always prioritises strengthening and consolidating relations with the World Bank (WB), affirmed Party General Secretary and State President To Lam during his reception for WB President Ajay Banga in New York on September 25 (local time).

Party General Secretary and State President To Lam (R) and WB President Ajay Banga

At the reception, Vietnam is one of the WB’s especially important partners, Banga said, while expressing his impression on the country’s changes over the past two decades, especially the way Vietnam has joined and continuously enhanced its position and role in the global supply chain.

In the coming time, he proposed the two sides continue promoting cooperation to improve the infrastructure system of waterway, road and railway, especially in the Mekong region, accelerate the sustainable energy transition and spread Vietnam's success in low-emission rice farming.

The Vietnamese leader highly valued the bank’s role in promoting poverty reduction and handling global challenges, and its strategic vision “To create a world free of poverty – on a livable planet”, saying it is a foundation to open up new development cooperation programmes focusing on sustainable development and green transition.

Lam affirmed Vietnam always prioritises strengthening and consolidating relations with the WB, suggesting the bank continue to support resources for Vietnam to implement potential, key and breakthrough projects, associated with renewing the growth model, restructuring the economy, promoting energy transition and climate change response, improving the economy's resilience to fluctuations, risks, and unpredictable changes in the international environment.

The leader expressed his belief that under the leadership of the WB President, the financial institution will complete its historic mission, and continue to effectively support developing countries in realising sustainable development goals.

Agreeing with Lam’s proposals, Ajay affirmed the priority to allocating large capital resources to Vietnam, with focus on key projects in priority areas proposed by the Vietnamese top leader.

Ajay said he hopes to return to visit Vietnam soon to promote further development of cooperation between the two sides, for the development of Vietnam in particular and the Asian region in general./.

VNA