The General Secretary initiated FDI

In March 1991, an event took place in Ho Chi Minh City that attracted strong attention from investors and the world's media. For the first time, a Vietnam Investment Forum was organized on a large scale by the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment (SCCI), and also for the first time during the Doi Moi cause, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam attended and spoke in front of 650 general directors, executives of multinational corporations and enterprises, leaders of international organizations, as well as representatives of embassies and consulates in Vietnam.

At that time, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh conveyed to the international investor community a clear message: "Vietnam advocates expanding economic cooperation in all fields and in all forms, in accordance with the characteristics of the process of internationalization of modern economic life...".

And to do that, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh requested that "Vietnamese authorities are responsible for correcting their activities, in order to soon create a favorable investment environment, making investors feel secure in conducting production and business activities...".

In the context that Vietnam is under embargo and official development assistance (ODA) has not yet resumed, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh's message that Vietnam is innovating, opening up, encouraging private economic development and being willing to listen to the opinions of foreign investors to attract investment capital for economic development according to the principles of mutual benefit and mutual respect... has gone beyond the framework of an Investment Forum.

This message not only eliminates the concerns and reservations of international investors with a new investment area, builds trust in a renewed Vietnam, but also affirms an immutable principle in international cooperation, which is "mutual benefit, mutual respect". That message represents a strong innovation in both thinking and action towards international economic integration.

We must mention the extremely special moment of the above event to see the stature of General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh's innovative thinking and actions. From 1989, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to 1991, the bloc of socialist countries in Eastern Europe fell into a period of serious political and economic crisis. By the end of 1991, in August, the SEV bloc (Council for Mutual Economic Assistance among Socialist Countries) announced its dissolution; In December, the Soviet Union officially dissolved...

At that time, Vietnam, despite being in the spotlight with the Doi Moi initiative initiated by the 6th Party Congress in 1986, faced countless challenges. From 1987 to 1990, foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam was quite cautious and exploratory, only about 1.1 billion USD in registered capital, with a few hundred million USD implemented.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai, former Vice President of SCCI, who has witnessed Vietnam's journey of attracting FDI from the first days, said that, historically, the 1987 Foreign Investment Law can be considered the first milestone to realize the management mindset of shifting from centralized subsidy to a market economic mechanism, opening up and integrating with the world that the 6th Party Congress in 1986 officially declared. But the breakthrough of FDI in Vietnam only began after the Vietnam Investment Forum with responsible commitments from the head of the Communist Party of Vietnam to the international investment community.

Along with continuous, positive, proactive and responsive foreign affairs activities right in the early years of the reform process, General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh has made an important contribution to gradually breaking the siege and embargo against Vietnam.

Right after the Vietnam Investment Forum in 1991, there were 11 projects with a total capital of 247.6 million USD in the list of 187 projects calling for investment proposed by the Government of Vietnam and selected investors, opening a new phase in the history of Vietnam's FDI attraction.

After this event, big names from the world appeared in Vietnam, including BP, Shell, Total in the oil and gas industry;  Daewoo, Toyota, Ford... in the field of cars and motorbikes; Sony in the electronics industry; Phu My Hung in the field of real estate... Vietnam has become a promised land on the world investment map.

The drastic thinking and actions of General Secretary Nguyen Van Linh in international relations at that time also contributed significantly to creating a premise for Vietnam to resume economic relations with China in 1991, resume ODA in 1992, normalize relations with the US in 1994, join ASEAN in 1995 and sign the Cooperation Framework Agreement with the EU in 1995...