U.S. Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and Nguyen Phuong Nga, President of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations, greeted the guests at a ceremony held in Ha Noi on Monday to mark 25 years of relations between Vietnam and the United States.

Addressing the event in Hà Nội, Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam said the normalization of Việt Nam-US diplomatic relations was an important decision of the countries’ leaders, which closed a period full of difficulties and heralded a promising era. The Việt Nam-US comprehensive partnership has been developing extensively, from politics-diplomacy, economy-trade and defence-security to science-technology, health care and education. Bilateral trade has increased 170-fold since 1995 to approximately US$80 billion. The official described co-operation in different fields as an important bridge for building and consolidating trust, goodwill and durable friendship between the two countries. Sir Dam highlighted Việt Nam’s foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, and diverse and multilateral diplomatic relations, noting that the country considers the US a partner of leading importance in its foreign policy.

This year, when Việt Nam is serving as the ASEAN Chair and a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2020-21, the two sides have co-ordinated closely in issues of common concern at regional and international forums. Mr Dam appreciated contributions by generations of leaders, politicians, organisations and individuals of Việt Nam and the US to bilateral connections. He stressed that Việt Nam will work with the US in expanding and intensifying their bilateral comprehensive partnership, making contributions to the countries’ development as well as regional and global peace, stability and development.

At the ceremony, US Ambassador Daniel J. Kritenbrink described his country’s relations with Việt Nam as impressive and USA and Viet Nam has been co-operating closely with each other in all aspects, from security, trade, education and post-war issues to energy and health care. Rapidly growing trade ties and US businesses’ increasing investment in Việt Nam have generated numerous economic achievements for both sides and US remains one of the biggest export destinations of Việt Nam, which in turn is among the markets with the fastest growth of imports from the US.

Bilateral cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance and the US Department of Finance in the area of ​​strengthening finance for infrastructure has contributed to deepening the comprehensive Vietnam-US partnership.

Establish a cooperation framework to suit the needs of both sides

To create an official framework for bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and the United States in the field of infrastructure finance, in November 2019, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and the US Department of Finance signed the financial enhancement for infrastructure. This will be an official framework of cooperation between the two countries' Ministry of Finance to contribute to mobilizing / utilizing private capital resources and developing financial markets for infrastructure, helping Vietnam achieve priorities infrastructure in the coming time. Cooperation framework includes 5 contents. Specifically: Developing a more liquid debt market for infrastructure investment, including exploiting the potential of institutional investors through debt mobilization for infrastructure.

The signing of the bilateral cooperation framework between the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and the US Department of Finance in the financial sector for infrastructure development will contribute to promoting the bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and the United States and using up the resources of the United States to develop infrastructure in Vietnam. From a multilateral perspective, the signing of the cooperation framework also demonstrates Vietnam's goodwill to support the US Treasury Department's AEIPC initiative as well as the US Indo-Pacific strategy in the region.

Focus on implementing cooperation framework in the energy sector well

On February 11, 2020, the Politburo's Resolution No. 55-NQ/TW on Vietnam's national energy development strategy orientation to 2030, with a vision to 2045 that was issued and showed many new points in the undertakings and policies of Vietnam on national energy development. The Resolution has a stronger, more specific and comprehensive view on attracting and encouraging economic sectors to participate in energy development, especially the private sector, including in the field of transmission and electrical load. In particular, the target is to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) (as a clean energy source), capable of importing LNG of about 8 billion m3 by 2030 and about 15 billion m3 by 2045.

On the basis of the needs of Vietnam's energy sector infrastructure, the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam and the US Department of Finance will establish an energy infrastructure working group to coordinate the implementation of the infrastructure finance between the two countries' Ministry of Finance.

Regarding the upgrade of thermal power plants, the group will study to increase the financial efficiency of existing thermal power plants and new thermal power plants that currently account for 60% of total generation capacity. Regarding renewable energy, will promote the use of investment capital from the private sector to build and exploit new renewable energy from wind and solar with a capacity of 8,600 MW. Finally, the power transmission grid, the two sides will study and build a suitable financial model for small and micro power grids and other power grids to support investment in the development of the electricity network worth 25 billion USD.