Vietnam, France step up financial cooperation

At the event, Hung said the Vietnamese Ministry of Finance (MoF) highly evaluated the French ministry’s role in providing the French Government’s official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam's socio-economic development. France is now the biggest bilateral donor in Europe for Vietnam while Vietnam is the second largest recipient of French ODA capital. From 1993-2022, France committed to supplying around 18.4 billion USD in ODA loans to Vietnam through the French Treasury and the French Development Agency (AFD), with a focus on transportation (railway), water supply and drainage, climate change, energy and green growth.

Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung (R) and French Minister Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure - Photo: VNA

Hung wished to learn from France's experience in the State budget settlement and State financial report making. He believed that the French ministry will work together with the MoF to successfully hold technical support activities for 2023-2024, and France will assist Vietnam in strengthening its capacity and gradually bringing Vietnam's public financial management closer to international practices.

Lescure, for his part, also shared major reforms that France is making, including pension reform (raising the retirement age to 64 by 2030) to ensure a more sustainable pension system for the country and to draw more people to the workforce for economic growth.

He affirmed that Hung’s visit will contribute to further reinforcing close ties between Vietnam and France.

In the afternoon of the same day, Hung paid a working trip to the headquarters of the AFD’s Expertise France.

At the meeting with Expertise France - Photo: VNA

Receiving the Vietnamese official, AFD Director Philippe Orliange recalled the content of a meeting between the Vietnamese Finance Minister and the French Ambassador in Hanoi last November, which included a proposal related to France's support for the ministry in establishing a green budget.

Orliange pledged to assist Vietnam in the project, considering it a priority of the AFD, and believed that the project will help the ministry with its modernisation efforts to meet the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

CEO of Expertise France Jérémie Pellet said Vietnam is the only country in Southeast Asia where Expertise France has established an office.

About Vietnam's concerns over challenges in green finance initiatives such as building a carbon market, proper use of public and private funding, and enhancing the Government's action capacity, Pellet said Expertise France is ready to share France’s experience and urge the European Commission (EC) to assist Vietnam in this field, and introduce Vietnam's model to other countries in Southeast Asia.

He expressed the readiness to cooperate with Vietnam in this green finance project and hoped that it will meet the expectation of the MoF for sustainable development.

Hung believed that Expertise France, together with the MoF, will successfully hold technical support activities in 2023-2024, and help the Vietnamese side enhance the capacity of developing green finance policies, thus contributing to delivering on Vietnam's international commitments.

On the occasion, Hung and Orliange signed an agreement on enhancing the capacity of building green finance policies. Accordingly, the two sides will partner in areas such as strengthening the capacity of evaluating green tax policies, supporting the improvement of legal frameworks, improving the capacity of issuing green government bonds in the financial market, and improving research capacity in managing revenue from the carbon market.

During his visit from July 10-14, Hung is also scheduled to hold working sessions with the General Directorate of Public Finances, the French Treasury, the Finance Department of Montreuil city and lay a wreath at President Ho Chi Minh’s statue in Montreau park.