JAKARTA: Governments and businesses from Asean countries need to cooperate more closely, effectively and substantively to promote business growth and create breakthroughs for the bloc.

       Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said this at the 2023 Asean Business and Investment Summit (Asean BIS) which took place in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Monday.

       Chinh said countries should work together to improve institutions through standardisation and harmonising investment and business regulations in Asean, simplify procedures through digital transformation, and promptly remove business problems.

       Governments and business communities should team up to develop strategic infrastructure, including transport and energy infrastructure, and smart infrastructure, such as digital platforms and innovation hubs.

       They should also strengthen infrastructure connectivity among countries, create connectivity in the whole region, and facilitate the public-private cooperation model to promote their strengths and resources, he said.

       At the same time, governments and enterprises needed to work together to build high-quality human resources, especially in digital transformation, green transformation, and high technology, with common standards on training and mutual recognition among diploma systems.

       “This is the key to improving labour productivity and the competitiveness of the bloc,” Chính said.

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       During the event, he encouraged the firms to take the lead in innovation and comply with the laws in addition to building a business culture that contributes to developing the national cultural identity of each country, and supporting each other in production and business to grow together.

       He also called on foreign investors to come to Vietnam to invest in the country with the motto of harmonious interests and shared risks.

       Chinh said he believed that Asean and business communities would catch up with new trends, effectively respond to challenges, and ensure a balance between the goal of recovering growth in the short term and ensuring sustainable development in the long term, taking full advantage of new development opportunities, and bringing practical benefits to the bloc, its people, and businesses.

       In his speech, Chinh said Asean boasts an open and extensive economic landscape with a network of eight Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), including the Asean Free Trade Area and seven others with key partners.

       Notably, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement establishes a free trade region encompassing 30% of the world’s population with over 688 million people and 32% of global gross domestic product, amounting to over US$3.6 trillion in 2022.

       In addition, numerous new initiatives have been launched to enable Asean to optimise opportunities arising from emerging development trends.

       These include the establishment of the Asean Digital Economy Framework Agreement, the Framework for a Circular Economy, the Blue Economy Framework and the Asean Strategy for Carbon Neutrality, along with negotiations to upgrade the Asean Trade in Goods Agreement and its FTAs with China, South Korea, Japan and India, among others. — Viet Nam News/ANN