Remarks by Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen at Bilateral Meeting with Minister of Finance of Vietnam Ho Duc Phuc

As Prepared for Delivery 

Thank you, Minister Phoc, for hosting me today. It’s a pleasure to meet you for the first time and to be in Vietnam.

The United States considers Vietnam a key partner in the Indo-Pacific. I place considerable priority on further strengthening our bilateral economic relationship.

In particular, we seek to deepen the already significant trade and investment ties between our two countries.

Not only have Vietnamese exports to the United States risen substantially, but today, the U.S. exports 20 times more to Vietnam than in 2002.

I’ve been impressed by the economic dynamism in your country and am pleased that I was able too meet yesterday with leaders from the U.S. business community to learn first-hand about the opportunities they see in Vietnam and the ways their activity here can benefit workers and firms in the U.S. as well.

Beyond the direct benefits of our economic relationship, I also believe that the deep economic ties between the U.S. and Vietnam help create greater economic resilience through what I call ‘friendshoring’.

‘Friendshoring’ is about expanding our trade ties and diversifying our supply chains among many trusted partners like Vietnam to mitigate against global shocks, geopolitical risks, and overconcentration in critical industries.

We see that in action right now in Vietnam, and we want to continue to encourage that moving forward through initiatives like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, of which we are both a part.

We also work with Vietnam through the G7’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment which seeks to mobilize $600 billion over five years.

Finally, we are proud of our work with Vietnam in combatting climate change.

Along with the International Partners Group colleagues, the UK and EU, I was very encouraged by the announcement of the Just Energy Transition Partnership, or JETP, in December.

This partnership will provide over $15 billion to help Vietnam achieve a clean energy transition in a way that benefits its people.

I look forward to hearing more about Vietnam’s path forward and the role of the Ministry of Finance in advancing Vietnam’s energy transition goals.

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