This is the Organization’s first MoU with Viet Nam, which frames future co-operation and paves the way for an eventual OECD Country Program with the Southeast Asian country.

It was signed in Paris by Vietnamese Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann in the presence of Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

Under the MoU, the OECD will support Viet Nam’s reform efforts in areas where it is already working with the OECD, such as competition, investment, and tax policy.

The OECD will also support country-specific reports like the first OECD Economic Survey of Viet Nam, due in 2022, and can support the follow up of the OECD Clean Energy Finance and Investment Policy Review of Viet Nam, published earlier the same day.

The Review outlines recommendations to help Viet Nam mobilize finance and investment to turn the energy sector carbon neutral, a prerequisite to reach its pledge of net zero emissions by 2050, made at COP26.

“The clean energy sector will play a crucial role in making Viet Nam’s recovery sustainable and helping it to achieve its industrial targets,” Cormann said of the Review.

Effective clean energy policies are increasingly a source of comparative advantage to attract foreign direct investment, particularly in the manufacturing sector, as international companies seek to make their supply chains carbon neutral, Cormann added./.