According to the VNA correspondent in Ottawa, the Canadian government is promoting a new approach to cooperation with Viet Nam that links development assistance with expanding opportunities for trade and investment, particularly in the areas of green economy, energy transition, and innovation.

According to information from the Canadian Ministry of Global Affairs, during the recent visit of Minister for International Development Randeep Sarai to Viet Nam, Canada announced new grants under a support package of over CAD 123 million (USD 89.9 million) for Viet Nam and several countries in the Indo- Pacific region. Viet Nam alone received CAD 81.3 million for projects focusing on climate change adaptation, strengthening local governance capacity, supporting socially impactful businesses, and promoting sustainable finance. Canadian officials emphasized that these grants are not only traditional aid but also act as catalysts to enhance institutional capacity, technical standards, and access to finance for Vietnamese businesses, thereby facilitating expanded trade cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries in the future.

Over 30 years of Canada's development cooperation with Viet Nam has had a positive impact on Viet Nam's trade capacity. Support programs have not only contributed to enhancing the capacity of policy-making and implementation agencies, supporting improved negotiation skills and the implementation of integration commitments, but have also helped build livelihoods for the people, gradually equipping the business community with knowledge, skills, and tools, thereby improving competitiveness and the ability to participate in regional and global value chains. According to official Canadian government figures, bilateral trade in goods has consistently reached CAD 13-15 billion since 2024, and Vietnam is currently Canada's largest trading partner in ASEAN.

As part of efforts to promote concrete cooperation, the Viet Nam Trade Office in Canada held working sessions with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM), an organization implementing several cooperation projects in Viet Nam, including the Climate-Resilient Cities Program. The two sides discussed the possibility of connecting Canadian businesses with Vietnamese localities in the areas of waste management, water resource management, green urban planning, and energy transition.

FCM representatives assessed Viet Nam as a dynamic market with a great demand for sustainable infrastructure solutions, and suggested that current development cooperation projects could be expanded into concrete trade and investment cooperation opportunities if there is close coordination between government agencies, local authorities, and the private sector of both sides.

Experts in Ottawa believe that the Canadian government's new approach aligns with its Indo-Pacific Strategy, announced in 2022, in which Viet Nam is identified as a key partner. Linking development assistance with promoting investment and trade also reflects a general trend among developed countries to leverage public funds to mitigate risks and create a foundation for private capital flows.

Areas considered to have significant potential for cooperation between the two countries include renewable energy, urban water and waste management, high-tech agriculture, supply chains, and green financial technology. Given Viet Nam's accelerated energy transition and commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050, Canadian businesses are seen as having strengths in technology, technical consulting, and climate finance that could provide support.

Canadian officials affirmed that they will continue to work closely with relevant Vietnamese agencies to ensure that development assistance programs create a ripple effect, contributing to the promotion of a more substantive and balanced development of bilateral economic relations in the future.

Source: Tin Tuc News

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