On November 7, 2017, Prime Minster Nguyen Xuan Phuc had a meeting with Ms. Victoria Kwakwa, WB Vice President for East Asia and Pacific Region, on the sidelines of the Vietnam Business Summit (VBS) within the framework of APEC Economic Leaders’ Week 2017. The meeting was attended by Deputy Governor Nguyen Thi Hong of the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV).
At the meeting, Prime Minister warmly welcomed the working visit of Ms. Victoria Kwakwa to Vietnam on her new position as WB Vice President
Ms. Victoria Kwakwa expressed her pleasure to return to Vietnam and her impression on Vietnam’s socio-economic growth in 2017, especially macro-economic stabilization, stable growth and encouraging results in the restructuring of the banking sector and NPL resolution. In addition, she insisted on Vietnam’s challenge of dealing with obstacles related to capital mobilization for infrastructure development. In the context of Vietnam’s public debt ceiling close to the set level, and huge demand for infrastructure development to ensure sustainable growth in the future, she asserted that WB would be willing to cooperate with Vietnam to complete legal framework for public –private partnership and capital mobilization from private sector to build infrastructure; at the same time, coordinating with Government agencies to research and develop institutions with regards to the effective mobilization of private capital for infrastructure investment.
The Prime Minister highly appreciated the WB and the Vice President’s support for Vietnam, especially its formulation of Country Partnership Framework for Vietnam for 2017-2020 period and appropriate transitional support mechanism for Vietnam in the IDA 18.
About infrastructure investment, the Prime Minister emphasized that Vietnam had a huge demand for infrastructure development. Therefore, Vietnamese Government focused on attracting investment from the private sector in this field. He agreed with recommendations of the WB and hoped that the WB would continue cooperating with Government ministries and agencies to research and complete legal framework for public – private partnership and promote resource mobilization from private sector for infrastructure development in Vietnam.
Le Hang