On February 9, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Simon Cooper, CEO of the Corporate and Institutional Banking segment for Europe and Americas. (Photo: WVR/Nguyen Hong)

He met with Simon Cooper, CEO of the Corporate and Institutional Banking segment for Europe and Americas, and Patrick Lee, CEO of Singapore and ASEAN Markets at Standard Chartered – a British multinational group with operations in investment banking and financial services.

Cooper congratulated Vietnam on socio-economic achievements over the past years and highly valued the country’s climate commitments made at climate change conferences.

He expressed his firm’s hope to cooperate with Vietnam to successfully implement the Just Energy Transition Partnership and work with the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero to achieve net zero emissions.

Prime Minister Chinh informed the guests that Vietnam is prioritising and encouraging the development of green and sustainable finance, particularly a green bond market to support the implementation of the national strategy on green growth in 2021-2030 and the commitment to net zero emission by 2050.

Welcoming Standard Chartered’s proposals to help Vietnam attract foreign investment, the PM asked the bank and partners to continue considering measures for mobilising, promoting, and providing financial products for green projects and renewable energy ones in Vietnam so as to contribute to the country’s economic restructuring and energy transition towards green and sustainable growth.

In particular, he called for loans at preferential interest rates for investors in Vietnam considering the country's situation as a developing country having to deal with many difficulties but shouldering climate change response tasks like developed ones.

The Vietnamese Government pledges to stand side by side with Standard Chartered to create conditions for foreign investors to successfully make investment and do business in the country, he added.

The same day, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh toured the Singapore City Gallery. (Photo: WVR/Nguyen Hong)

The same day, Prime Minister Chinh toured the Singapore City Gallery, where he inquired into Singapore's planning philosophy, the process of building Singapore into a green city, and steps to build a smart city with digital government, digital economy and digital society.