If agriculture takes Vietnam from poverty to a developing country; If industry helps people enter the upper middle income group, science and technology will be the key to becoming a developed country, the Prime Minister said in a dialogue with the WEF CEO.
On the afternoon of November 26, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended a 60-minute policy dialogue session with Mr. Stephan Mergenthaler, Executive Director of the Economic Forum (WEF) within the framework of the Fall 2025 Economic Forum in Ho Chi Minh City.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a 60-minute policy dialogue with WEF CEO Stephan Mergenthaler on the afternoon of November 26. Image: VGP
In the first question, Mr. Stephan mentioned Vietnam’s goal of becoming a developed economy by 2045. Assuming the conversation was taking place at that time, the WEF CEO invited the Prime Minister to look back and summarize the key factors leading to success.
Responding to this way of thinking, the Prime Minister said that looking to the past helps draw lessons and look towards the future. In 2025, Vietnam celebrates 80 years of National Day and 50 years of Liberation of the South – Unification of the country. During that time, the country went through 40 years of war and about 30 years of embargo.
“You can imagine the extent of our difficulties and challenges,” the Prime Minister said. However, he affirmed that Vietnam does not live in the past but chooses to put it aside, respect differences, exploit similarities, and look towards the future.
On the journey of development, agriculture helps Vietnam from a poor country to a well-fed country, from underdeveloped to developing. Next, industry helps the developing country gradually approach high average income.
“We determine that science, technology and innovation will help Vietnam become a developed, high-income country by 2045,” the Prime Minister affirmed. He confirmed that the 2045 goal is very challenging but “cannot be done”, so that people are prosperous, materially and spiritually happy.
Speech by the Prime Minister on the process of bringing Vietnam out of poverty to become a developed country by 2045 at the dialogue session at WEF on November 26. Video: BTC
Mr. Stephan continued the discussion with external challenges such as geopolitical tensions, supply chain disruptions, and climate change. This context makes national resilience crucial for long-term success. Therefore, he asked the Prime Minister to clarify these factors of Vietnam.
The Prime Minister quoted notes from the Summit of the Group of leading developed and emerging economies in the world (G20) that recently took place in South Africa, assessing that the world is facing many challenges as stated by Mr. Stephan.
Along with that, non-traditional security risks are emerging, such as natural disasters, population aging, resource depletion, cybersecurity, the development of AI threatening jobs, and strategic competition that is narrowing the development space. “It can be said that the world’s risks are very large. But we are not pessimistic, we see opportunities and advantages,” the Prime Minister commented.
He pointed out that the world is polarized and fragmented, but peace, cooperation and development is still the main trend. At the same time, science and technology, innovation, digital and green transformation are the common driving forces of the world economy, contributing to limiting the global challenges being faced.
Up to now, Vietnam is still growing, public debt has decreased from 56% of GDP to 36% of GDP this year. The scale of the economy, per capita income increased, political stability, good social order and safety, and prestigious position on the world stage increased. Vietnam overcomes challenges thanks to the leadership of the Party, the strength of solidarity from the people, combined with the strength of the times, and the correct foreign policy.
Regarding the Fall Economic Forum theme of “Green transformation in the digital era”, the coordinator wanted to know how the Prime Minister sees this dual strategy as the key to Vietnam’s long-term growth.
Government leaders reaffirmed that green and digital transformation are objective, strategic requirements and top priorities in the process of rapid and sustainable development. “These are two parallel sides of one process, closely related to each other, it can be said to be a double cycle,” the Prime Minister affirmed.
To implement, he believes that we must start from raising awareness to transform into action, with specific, feasible and effective solutions. Next, institutions must lead the way, turning bottlenecks into national competition.
In parallel, develop green infrastructure (such as renewable energy), digital infrastructure (database, connectivity, exploitation), smart governance and resource mobilization. The Prime Minister concluded that Vietnam will focus on breakthroughs in institutions, infrastructure, and human resources.
Continuing to deepen Vietnam’s dual transformation solution, WEF CEO raised questions about Vietnam’s level of interest and investment in target groups such as: small and medium enterprises; startups and youth and young workers.
With small and medium enterprises, accounting for 95-97% of the total number of businesses, the Prime Minister assessed that this force contributes greatly to GDP and creates many jobs. Recently, Resolution 68 on the private economy increased support. “They need open institutions, smooth infrastructure, human resource training, and management training,” he said.
Meanwhile, startup movements are strongly launched right from the student age, with a lot of legal support, resources, thinking, and methods, so that they can confidently start their own businesses and innovate more. According to him, Vietnamese people in general and young people in particular are passionate about new things and want to contribute to the country’s development. Therefore, the way to do it here is to take patriotism as the root and “breathe life” into it with institutions, resources, and attention.
“In short, raising awareness, helping them be confident, and supporting resources so they have space to be creative and devote themselves. Young people need creative space. In creativity, you must accept risks. And in risk, there must be a policy to protect them in the spirit of ‘harmonious benefits – shared risks'”, the Prime Minister stated.
Mr. Stephan Mergenthaler said that was a very “wonderful” viewpoint. The dialogue also expanded to Vietnam’s role in the Southeast Asia regional vision as well as contributing to dialogue efforts and resolving global conflicts.
Answering these questions, the Prime Minister said that ASEAN is very dynamic, the epicenter of growth. The core characteristic here is solidarity in diversity, which should continue to be promoted. ASEAN shares the same vision of rapid and sustainable development. To achieve, four elements are needed: solidarity; cooperate and share; combining regional strength with the strength of the times with the pillars of science and technology, innovation, green transformation and digital transformation; Maximize common points so that culture becomes the bloc’s strength and unique characteristics.
Regarding the “spirit of dialogue”, which will also be the main topic at the upcoming WEF Davos, the Prime Minister said that in a world context with polarized politics, divided economics, fragmented institutions, fragmented development, dialogue is extremely necessary to strengthen trust.
According to him, for dialogue to be successful, it is necessary to activate common values, the spirit of fairness, mutual respect, and persist in the principle that all conflicts must be resolved by peaceful means through dialogue. Vietnam also demonstrates its role as an example of dialogue, not forgetting the past but putting the past aside, respecting differences, exploiting common points.
“We are ready with WEF and partners to promote dialogue in places of conflict, places of doubt and lack of trust to bring peace, cooperation and development to all countries, without people being left behind,” the Prime Minister said.
The Fall Economic Forum is directed by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, chaired by the Center for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (HCMC C4IR), and organized in coordination with agencies, ministries and WEF. The forum was developed from the local annual Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum, following the model of accompanying WEF.
The name “Autumn Economic Forum” was inspired by the time when WEF held its main Forum in Davos (Switzerland) every spring and in Dalian/Tianjin (China) in the summer. At a meeting with WEF CEO Stephan Mergenthaler at noon on November 26, the Prime Minister asked WEF to study and consider Vietnam’s proposal to turn the Fall Economic Forum into an annual event of WEF, similar to WEF Dalian/Tianjin.