New leadership seen to further boost Vietnam’s ties with PHL

EARLY this month, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s National Congress, which is held roughly every five years, saw the reelection of Nguyen Phu Trong as general secretary of the Communist Party.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, former head of the Communist Party’s Central Organization Committee, replaced Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who will be the country’s ceremonial president of state. Vuong Dinh Hue was appointed chairman of Vietnam’s National Congress.

Chinh will be leading the Vietnamese government, acknowledged for its success in containing the deadly pandemic within its borders using effective and low-cost control measures. The country achieved this by “preventing, detecting, quarantining, localizing, containing and treating” individuals infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) through a centralized quarantine system and mass testing.

As of April 19, Vietnam—despite its long borders, as well as busy air and sea routes—has only 2,785 infections and 35 fatalities.

After successfully containing the Covid-19 contagion, Chinh hopes to transform Vietnam into Asean’s secondlargest economy by 2030 because of its outstanding economic performance. This is largely due to the former prime minister’s 2021-2030 national socioeconomic development strategy and the 2021-2025 development plan to realize the targets made by the National Party Congress on March 28.

Vietnam’s economic performance is described as “outstanding,” as its gross domestic product achieved 2.9-percent increase despite the negative impacts of the pandemic last year. It had an average GDP growth of 6.8 percent.

Backed by the Joint Declaration on Strategic partnership, bilateral relations between Vietnam and the Philippines flourished and benefited people of both countries. The latter’s exports reached $1.27 billion, while its counterpart amounted to $3.64 billion. Filipino companies investing in Vietnam has considerably increased over the years.

Today, there are 8,000 “Pinoys” in Vietnam in the fields of manufacturing, and who work as English language teachers, hotel staff and musicians.

With its new set of leaders, Vietnam’s strategic partnership with the Philippines will benefit both their citizens, who are seen to collectively contribute toward regional peace and stability.