The Czech Republic-Vietnam Business Forum was held in Prague on April 17 within the framework of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s ongoing visit to the European country, drawing representatives of more than 100 enterprises and investors of both sides.
Addressing the event, Jaroslav Hanak, President of the Czech Confederation of Industry and Transport, said that the country holds strengths in industry, science, and technology, and is willing to partner with Vietnam in these fields.
Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Marta Novakova highlighted the cooperation potential between the two sides in education-training, underlining the role of Vietnamese alumni who studied in the Czech Republic as bridges between the two peoples.
She lauded the position and prestige of Vietnam in the region and the world, stating that the Czech Republic supports the EU’s signing of the free trade agreement with Vietnam (EVFTA) and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA).
She also suggested a number cooperation areas that the Czech Republic has advantages in, such as the automobile industry and crystal production, while expressing hopes to increase exports to Vietnam.
At the event, Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis underscored the contributions by the Vietnamese community to socio-economic development in the European country and the growth of bilateral partnership.
He expressed his delight at the expanding bilateral relationship, adding that he hopes the EVFTA will be signed before the upcoming European Council election, thus opening up more chances for EU and Czech Republic enterprises to soon increase trade and investment partnerships with Vietnam.
The Czech PM proposed that business communities of both sides strengthen import-export activities between the two countries, affirming that the two governments will create optimal conditions for the launching of a direct air route linking Hanoi and Prague in 2019.
He said that leaders of the two countries discussed the simplification of procedures for granting visas for citizens of both sides to visit each other’s countries.
He stressed that Vietnam is a huge and promising market for Czech firms to invest in and operate production activities.
For his part, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said he hopes that after the forum, businesses of both sides will continue maintaining their connectivity and meetings to seek partnership opportunities.
He added that Vietnamese and Czech firms should further promote partnership in broader areas, pledging that the two governments will back them in the work.
Noting that Vietnam and the Czech Republic’s economies are more supplementary than competitive, the Vietnamese Government leader held that the bilateral partnership will grow with greater efficiency in the future.
He said that Vietnam has political and social stability, strong tropical agriculture, and a rapidly growing processing-manufacturing sector with wide export markets, adding that the local business environment has been much improved, drawing nearly 28,000 FDI projects with a total capital of over 345 billion USD.
Vietnam ranked 77th out of the 137 countries on the global competitiveness index in 2018. In early April of 2019, S&P Global raised the country’s sovereign rating to BB with a stable outlook.
So far, Vietnam has signed and implemented 12 FTAs, including the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, said the PM, adding that Vietnam is working with the EU to speed up the signing and ratification of the EVFTA, which is an important foundation for the promotion of trade ties between Vietnam and the EU, including the Czech Republic.
Furthermore, Vietnam has a young workforce with a nearly-100-million-strong market, which is of great potential for investors and business from the Czech Republic to explore, he stated.
From a property-market perspective, Do Thi Thu Giang, National Director of Valuation and Advisory at Savills Vietnam, said the orientations under Resolution No. 21-NQ/TW could make the market more transparent and efficient, with property values increasingly tied to actual development and use potential.
Chinese carmakers are putting new pressure on prices and technology while testing Vietnam’s ability to retain more value.
Science and technology, innovation, digital transformation and AI must be translated into higher productivity rather than pursued as ends in themselves. At the same time, people should be placed at the centre of development, not merely viewed as a resource but as the ultimate objective of development policies.
US retail giant Target is seeking Vietnamese suppliers of household goods, home textiles, children’s products, personal care and beauty products, with a focus on companies capable of manufacturing and developing products that meet requirements on quality, design and supply chain management.
The annual event, which will be held on August 18-19, 2026, at the ICE International Exhibition Centre, 91 Tran Hung Dao Street, Hanoi, is expected to attract around 324 delegates and feature 21 booths representing credit institutions, payment intermediary service providers, and technology companies.
Vietnam should give priority to areas where it has potential to build strengths, particularly manufacturing and packaging.
Vietnam has built a solid semiconductor and electronics industry before joining ITSI, attracting major US semiconductor companies. Intel Products Vietnam is one of Intel's largest assembly and testing facilities worldwide, while chip design companies such as Synopsys, Cadence, Marvell and Qualcomm have established engineering and research centres in the Southeast Asian country.
According to the Ministry of Construction, Vietnam has around 2,500 old apartment blocks and collective housing complexes built before 1994, covering about 3 million square metres of floor space, mainly in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Of these, around 196 have been classified as severely deteriorated and unsafe.
Durian exports reached nearly 1.1 billion USD in the first six months of 2026, up 32% year-on-year. The industry's strongest export season, however, is still ahead.
The country's agro-forestry-aquatic product exports reached nearly 42.8 billion USD in the January–July period, up 7.5% year-on-year and equivalent to almost 60% of the annual target of 74 billion USD.
During the first seven months of 2026, Vietnam attracted more than 38 billion USD in registered FDI, up nearly 58% year-on-year. More importantly, the increase was driven by large-scale, high-tech projects rather than a surge in the number of new investments, signalling a significant improvement in the quality of capital inflows.
Manufacturing and engineering posted the strongest recruitment growth, with hiring demand surging 70% year-on-year, driven by production expansion, supply chain restructuring and sustained investment inflows in high-tech manufacturing.
Vietnam's total import-export turnover reached 659.58 billion USD in the first seven months of 2026, up 28.1% year-on-year.
The projects in Phu Quoc have been implemented under tight deadlines. Since May 2025, the Prime Minister has directed preparations for APEC 2027, including accelerated infrastructure development on the special zone. An Giang province and investors have subsequently launched a number of major projects involving complex technical requirements and demanding construction schedules.
The NSO also reported that realised FDI reached an estimated 15.2 billion USD during the January-July period, an increase of 11.8% from a year earlier and the highest seven-month disbursement recorded over the past five years.
Household deposits at banks reached a new high of 10.8 quadrillion VND (414 billion USD) at the end of May, up more than 108 trillion VND from April and increasing by 4.76% from the beginning of the year, equivalent to nearly 492 trillion VND.
The plan seeks to develop a balanced and modern financial market that is closely integrated with regional and global markets, strengthens the mobilisation and allocation of domestic and foreign capital, and enhances the market’s role as a key provider of medium- and long-term capital for the economy and as a major driver of sustained high economic growth.
Under the province's master plan for 2021–2030 with a vision to 2050, An Giang will prioritise investment in five strategic sectors: strategic infrastructure; processing industries and clean energy; trade, services, logistics and border-gate economy; high-quality tourism; and high-tech agriculture, ecological development and the circular economy.
According to the VCCI, these measures are not only necessary for managing potential risks arising from US trade actions but also crucial to enhancing competitiveness and meeting growing international expectations on compliance, product origin, quality and transparency.
Businesses say the biggest obstacle to reducing emissions and transforming production models remains the lack of financial resources needed to upgrade technologies, modernise production lines and build governance systems that comply with global sustainability standards.