Affirming that financial cooperation is an important pillar in bilateral relations, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh highly appreciated Japan's effective financial support for Vietnam to implement large-scale infrastructure investment projects with great spillover effects, such as Nhat Tan Bridge, Terminal T2 of Noi Bai International Airport and most recently, Ho Chi Minh City Metro Line 1 (Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien) which officially entered commercial operation in late December 2024, according to VNA.
The Prime Minister said that recently, the parties have carried out many restructuring measures to improve the operational efficiency of the Nghi Son oil refinery project (Thanh Hoa) and have had initial results. At the same time, he requested the Minister to have a voice to encourage the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) to be more active in participating in restructuring this project in the spirit of harmonizing interests and sharing risks so that the project can truly be a symbol of effective cooperation and mutual benefit between the parties.
In the spirit of a "sincere, affectionate, and trustworthy" relationship, the Prime Minister proposed that Japan continue to provide financial support and promote new-generation ODA for Vietnam in line with the current situation with preferential interest rates, simple mechanisms, flexible procedures, and quick implementation to carry out strategic infrastructure projects that change the status quo and turn the situation around, especially the North-South high-speed railway project, nuclear power, and urban railway projects in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Along with that, Japan continues to cooperate in technology transfer, support the construction and improvement of institutions, human resource training, and improve management capacity on a larger scale, faster speed, wider scope, with focus, key points, focusing on a number of large projects. At the same time, promote investment and trade cooperation, exchange of goods with strengths of both sides; cooperation between localities; cooperation in science and technology, innovation, digital transformation, exploitation of underground space, sea space, outer space, etc.
The Prime Minister proposed to continue promoting cooperation in the field of education and training. At the same time, he hoped that Japan would support Vietnam in infrastructure development projects, disaster risk response, climate change, projects under the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) and the Asian Zero Net Emission Community (AZEC) mechanism, etc.
The Prime Minister said that Vietnam will prepare a list of specific projects for Japan to study and implement cooperation, and strongly promote the activities of the specialized working group for cooperation with Japan.
Minister Kato Katsunobu affirmed that Vietnam is very close to Japan and to him personally. The Minister affirmed that he will actively support and promote mutually beneficial cooperation in areas of mutual interest, especially the contents mentioned by the Prime Minister.
The Minister suggested that both sides make more efforts to resolve difficulties, promote existing projects and implement new projects; affirmed that they will continue to report to the Japanese Government, discuss with businesses about cooperation with Vietnam in strategic infrastructure projects; discuss with JBIC about the content mentioned by the Prime Minister related to the Nghi Son project.
