Davos: Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh hosted separate receptions in Davos, Switzerland, on January 16 (local time) for leaders of the world’s leading businesses in the fields of technology, e-commerce, finance and tourism on the sidelines of the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Receiving Ryan McInerney, CEO of Visa Inc., a world leading digital payment enterprise with revenue of 32.6 billion USD in 2023, PM Chinh hailed Visa’s long-term investment strategy in Vietnam.
Noting that Vietnam has launched the National Innovation Centre (NIC), the PM suggested Visa strengthen cooperation with Vietnamese authorised agencies in supporting the development of programmes for startup and innovation communities.
The government leader welcomed Visa to continue investing and engaging in the innovation and digital transformation process of Vietnam, including cooperating with the State Bank of Vietnam to build a comprehensive financial strategy and develop a stable and sustainable financial system with diverse forms and large scale, meeting the country’s socio-economic development requirements.
Particularly, PM Chinh proposed Visa launch high-tech solutions in in different regions of Vietnam to ensure that all people can access financial services without anyone left behind.
McInerney said that Visa, which has operated in Vietnam for 20 years and opened its office and innovation centres in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, has always considered Vietnam as one of its most important markets.
Vietnam is developing dynamically with strong demand for technologies and innovations, especially in e-payment, which is a strength of Visa, he said, underlining that his firm hoped to continue engaging more deeply into the country’s innovation and digital transformation process.
Meeting Vice President for Global Public Policy of Amazon Web Services (AWS) Michael Punke, PM Chinh lauded Amazon’s proposal to cooperate with Vietnam and contribute to the digital transformation, digital economy and digital society building efforts of Vietnam.
He asked for Amazon’s assistance to Vietnam’s digital transformation, application of cloud computing technology, and building of network security solutions.
The PM suggested Amazon help Vietnam design training and sales consulting programmes for potential Vietnamese partners on the Amazon platform, strengthening cooperation with Vietnamese businesses, and helping Vietnam maximise its potential and strengths and overcome limitations to achieve goals in digital transformation and innovation.
Amazon should increase collaboration with the NIC to promote trans-border export activities and build Vietnamese trademarks on its e-commerce platform, the Vietnamese leader said.
For his part, Punke said that Amazon is focusing on supporting Vietnamese firms in the fields of banking, finance, telecommunications and production by providing them with cloud computing services to speed up their digital transformation process. Since 2017, Amazon has worked with universities to train 50,000 Vietnamese learners on cloud computing skills, he noted.
Amazon wants to join the Vietnamese Government in building a policy that prioritises the use of cloud computing, said Punke, recommending the Vietnamese Government to design policies to encourage businesses in the field of digital commerce and new services such as data centres/cloud computing and support cross-border data flows.
