Vietnam is an Important Market for Denmark

This is the first visit of a Danish Prime Minister to Vietnam. The visit gives a clear signal that Denmark reckons Vietnam as an important partner. The Prime Minister will have meetings with all the political leaders in Vietnam, and one important objective of the visit is of course to strengthen the political dialogue between our two countries. Another important objective of the Prime Ministers visit is to promote Danish businesses in Vietnam and strengthen the relations to Vietnamese companies. The Prime Minister will during the visit launch a new Danish Growth Strategy for Vietnam. She will also be opening seminars for Vietnamese and Danish businesses working together, especially in the health sector. Together with seven other world leaders, the Prime Minister was recently appointed as Champion for Education by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. As an advocate’s for the UN Secretary General’s “Education First” initiative the Prime Minister is going to visit a school in Hanoi and promote education for all.

 

Denmark has cooperated with Vietnam many fields. First of all, Denmark has supported Vietnam with Official Development Assistance (ODA), especially since 1993 till now. Denmark is a small country, but we are among the four biggest donors providing grants to Vietnam. We have provided more than US$1.3 billion in grants over the last 20 years. We have supported activities within environment, agriculture, fisheries, climate change, water and sanitation, private sector business, culture, governance and so on. The development cooperation has primarily been focussed in remote, poor areas in the centre and north of Vietnam both also in the Mekong delta area in the south. 

 

Since the beginning of this century, the commercial relation between our two countries has expanded a lot. We have more than 130 Danish companies in Vietnam today and Vietnam is seen as a potential market for expansion by many Danish companies, not only as an outsourcing destination, but increasingly also due to the expansion of the local consumer market.

 

The trade between our countries reached a peak last year and is expected to increase in the coming years. That is also why the Prime Minister during her visit will launch a Danish Growth Strategy for Vietnam. Notwithstanding the actual problems of the Vietnamese economy, we believe that Vietnam will be an interesting market in the years to come.

 

I believe that many Danish companies can provide knowledge, skills, high technology, consultancy and support for the Vietnamese business sector within many sectors and contribute to a more sustainable and competitive growth in Vietnam. More Danish hi-tech Danish companies are entering the market coinciding with the visit of the Prime Minister. These companies entail Novo Nordisk and Vestas – the biggest wind turbine producer in the world.

 

I would also like to mention that the peoples to people relationship between our two countries have been strengthened considerably over the years. Especially because we have cultural programmes which engage artists, performers, musicians, and so on, both in Vietnam and Denmark, to do things together.

 

We signed the agreement between the two governments to strengthen our cooperation concerning climate change, energy efficiency and green growth

Climate change and green growth are focus areas in our cooperation with Vietnam. As Vietnam is likely to be among the 5 most affected countries in the world from climate change impacts, Denmark attaches high priority to stand side by side with Vietnam in addressing the challenges to chart a new course on energy, reduce emissions, and adapt solid measures on adaptation. Over the coming years we will be supporting Vietnam with a US$25 million grant for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation and during the visit of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Climate and Energy will sign a new agreement concerning energy efficiency in small and medium sized enterprises.

 

If Vietnam wants to boost green growth, the government has to regulate and ensure that the right incentives are put in place for private business to make this interesting. At the moment the incentives are not in place, but the recent approval og the Green Growth strategy will hopefully pave the way for developing clean technology, focus more on energy efficiency, reuse waste and so on. There is a huge potential for developing these areas in the coming years as Vietnam will eventually have to “green” its economy. Denmark has world leading competences within many of these areas that match the needs of Vietnam.

 

Next year we hope to sign a Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement with Vietnam during the anticipated State visit of President Sang to Denmark.   The agreement will cover areas of mutual interest between our two countries, e.g. the political dialogue, the commercial relations, ODA, culture, research and so.

Our traditional development cooperation will be phased out by 2015. Denmark will the coming years continue to support Vietnam on climate issues and energy efficiency. During the visit of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Climate and Energy will sign an agreement for supporting energy efficiency in SMEs in Vietnam. We already have a climate change programme in which we support Vietnam until 2015, primarily in Ben Tre and Quang Nam. We will also support Vietnam within water and sanitation and broader governance reforms.

 

Our main focus, however, will be on how we can strengthen the commercial links between our two countries both regards trade and investment.