Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung and AFD Director Philippe Orliange exchanged a cooperation agreement on capacity building for green financial policy development. Photo: VNA

At the headquarters of the French Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty in Paris, Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung on July 10 and the delegation had a working session with French Minister Delegate for Industry Roland Lescure.

At the event, Hung expressed his delight at visiting the ministry's headquarters on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties, and the 10th anniversary of strategic partnership between the two countries this year.

Deputy Minister Vo Thanh Hung said that the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam appreciated the role of the Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty in providing official development aid (ODA) of the French Government for Vietnam to implement socio-economic development.

Currently, France is the biggest bilateral donor in Europe for Vietnam, and Vietnam ranks second among the countries receiving ODA loans from France.

In 1993-2022, France committed to submitting around US$18.4 billion in ODA loans to Vietnam through the French Treasury and the French Development Agency (AFD), focusing on transport (railway), water supply and drainage, climate change, energy, green growth.

Sharing about the purpose of this working visit, Deputy Minister Vo Thanh Hung expressed his desire to learn from France's experience in organizing and implementing state budget settlement, preparing the financial statements to promote the advantages as well as find solutions to overcome the current shortcomings.

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

Deputy Minister Vo Thanh Hung expressed his belief that the Ministry of Economics, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty will successfully organize technical assistance activities together with the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam in 2023-2024.

France will support Vietnam to strengthen its capacity and gradually bring Vietnam's public financial management to the international level

For his part, Minister Rolland Lescure expressed his impression of the great achievements that Vietnam gained in the reform and renewal process, especially in the last 10 years.

The Minister also shared some major reforms that France is implementing, including pension reform (extending the retirement age to 64 years old by 2030), to keep the country's pension system more sustainable, and also to attract more people into the workforce to spur economic growth.

The Minister also expressed his delight at the continuous development in the relationship between Vietnam and France.

He affirmed that the visit and work of the delegation led by Deputy Minister of Finance Vo Thanh Hung will contribute to further strengthening this relationship, and wish the delegation's business trip to France a great success.

At the meeting with Expertise France. Photo: VNA

On the same day, Deputy Minister Vo Thanh Hung visited and worked at Expertise France headquarters under the French Development Agency (AFD).

Receiving the Deputy Minister, Philippe Orliange, Director of AFD, recalled the content of the meeting between the Vietnamese Minister of Finance and the French Ambassador in Hanoi last November, including a proposal regarding France's support to the ministry in green budgeting.

After this meeting, AFD and Expertise France, the unit in charge of implementation, conducted a technical exchange with the Department of International Relations of the Ministry to concretize the contents of the program, and the implementation process.

Affirming France's strength in green budget management, Philippe Orliange pledged to support Vietnam in implementing this project, considering it a priority of AFD. He believed that the project will help the Ministry of Finance in the modernization process to meet the requirements of achieving the goal of net zero emissions by 2050.

CEO of Expertise France, Jérémie Pellet, also affirmed his appreciation for Vietnam's role, as demonstrated by its presence in Hanoi. He emphasized that this is the only country where Expertise France has an office in Southeast Asia.

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.

On this occasion, Deputy Minister Vo Thanh Hung and AFD Director Philippe Orliange signed an agreement on strengthening the capacity of developing green financial 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.

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