ASEAN remains bright spot in global economy amid challenging world: Prime Minister

Pham made the above statement at the plenary session of the 44th ASEAN Summit in Vientiane, Laos on October 9.

In 2023, total foreign investment inflows into ASEAN, a group of 10 Southeast Asian nations, reached US$230 billion, becoming the second most attractive investment destination in the world, only after the U.S., according to ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn.

Foreign direct investment inflows are expected to remain strong, as multinationals continue to diversify their manufacturing supply chains towards Southeast Asian industrialized nations, said Rajiv Biswas, Executive Director and Asia-Pacific Chief Economist, S&P Global Market Intelligence.

The bloc has created foundations to quickly catch up with the world's new development trends and inject momentum into quality and sustainable growth in the future by adopting ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement, ASEAN Blue Economy Framework, and ASEAN Framework for Circular, according to Kao Kim Hourn.

Building on the past achievements, Prime Minister Pham said it is high time for ASEAN to consider resilience as the foundation to rise up , connectivity as a focus to make breakthroughs, and innovation as the driving force to take the pioneering and leading role.

He went on to say that resilience and strategic autonomy are the foundations for ASEAN to stand firm in the face of all fluctuations and overcome all challenges.

From that perspective, ASEAN needs to consolidate solidarity and unity in diversity, remain steadfast to its conduct standards and its principled stances on regional and international issues, said Pham.

He called on ASEAN to strengthen resilience capacity and promote internal resources to maintain its strategic stability and timely respond to external risks.

Pham also stressed that ASEAN needs to maintain its central, independent and balanced role in expanding and diversifying relations with its partners in effective, practical and mutually beneficial fashion.

Regarding connectivity, ASEAN should boost both intra and extra connectivity, public and private connectivity, multi-sector connectivity, with a focus on infrastructure, institutional and human connectivity, said Pham.

Accordingly, ASEAN needs to accelerate investments in high-quality infrastructure projects, encourage the participation from third parties and external partners; promote harmonization of institutions to facilitate trade and investment, and movement of labor.

For innovation, Prime Minister Pham urged ASEAN to step up cooperation to develop regional innovation ecosystems, digital frameworks, and governance norms for emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

Pham took the occasion to inform that Viet Nam will host the ASEAN Future Forum in 2025, expressing his wish that other ASEAN member countries will continue support for Viet Nam to successfully organize this event.

He also thanked ASEAN member countries for their support to help Viet Nam overcome the consequences of Typhoon Yagi, underlining that solidarity and mutual affection will still be the core value and the source of strength of ASEAN./.