Following the foreign affairs policy of the Party and State, Da Nang's vibrant diplomatic activities in 2024 have contributed to widely advertising the image of Da Nang and opening up many international cooperation opportunities, thereby implementing specific policies and guidelines on the city’s development issued by the Central Government.

During the working visit to South Korea from July 7 - 13, 2024, the city delegation led by Secretary of the municipal Party Committee Nguyen Van Quang (middle) had a working session with Busan City's Mayor Park Heong Joon (6th, left). Photo: HOAN VU

Proactive international integration

With the motto of being proactive, adaptive, and creative, Da Nang's foreign affairs continue to be a bright spot in the country's overall achievements in foreign affairs. In 2024, Da Nang welcomed 218 international delegations and successfully organised business trips for 15 delegations of city leaders to China, Laos, the United States, Japan, South Korea, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other foreign countries.

These visits and working trips not only strengthened the diplomatic relations between Da Nang and its partners but also created opportunities to attract more foreign investment sources.

Along with that, the city expanded its international cooperation map to 49 localities of 22 countries and territories worldwide with 105 signed cooperation agreements in many fields.

Notably, this year marked the vibrant development of district-level foreign affairs. In particular, Hoa Vang District inked a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation with Yeongyang District and Bonghwa District, Gyeongsangbuk Province, South Korea. Similarly, Son Tra District and Hai Chau District in Da Nang entered into coopertation agreements with Jeollanam Province’s Gurye District, and Gyeonggi Province’s Uiwang City. Cam Le District in Da Nang is promoting cooperation with Muju District, Jeonbuk Province, South Korea.

Da Nang is the first locality in Viet Nam to issue the Project "Integration and international cooperation in Da Nang by 2030". The project points out a number of countries, markets and potential fields that the city can increase cooperation until 2030. This is an important orientation for the city to build a long-term foreign affairs plan, with focus on improving the quality of diplomatic activities.

This shows that Da Nang clearly demonstrates its internationalisation, dynamism and innovation as one of the country’s major socio-economic centres and its aim to become a major city in Southeast Asia in the spirit of the Politburo’s Conclusion No. 79-KL/TW on continuing to implement the Politburo’s Resolution No. 43-NQ/TW on building and developing the city to 2030, with a vision to 2045.

With the goal of making economic diplomacy become the centre of foreign affairs and an important driving force for the city’s socio-economic development, the municipal Department of Foreign Affairs always did a good job of advising, proactively connecting and attracting international investors involving hi-tech, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, free trade zones, financial centers, etc. In early 2024, the Department advised the municipal People's Committee to successfully organise the 'Meet Da Nang 2024' forum.

During the forum, Da Nang signed many agreements with international agencies and enterprises such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Synopsys International Limited and Intel Corporation.

In addition, the Da Nang Semiconductor Day 2024 held in August 2024 facilitated the city connect and work with 18 large corporations in the world and related partners in the field of microchips, semiconductors and artificial intelligence, such as Qualcomm Corporation, Marvell Corporation, Synopsys Company, NVIDIA Company and Swiss EP Organization.

Recently, the city granted an investment licence for the ICT VINA III Project invested by South Korea’s Dentium Company Limited with a total capital of US$ 177 million.

As of October 25, 2024, the city attracted 1,011 FDI projects totalling more than US$ 4.35 billion. The city's export value stood at US$ 1,592.3 million, up 4.1% year-on-year.

To further promote the role of bilateral cooperation in economic diplomacy, Da Nang plans to host the Forum of Friendship and Cooperation Cities from January 16 - 18, 2025. It will offer a chance for Da Nang to look back on the achievements on the multilateral cooperation map, thereby expanding and tightening international relations in such important spheres as innovation, smart city development, hi-tech, urban planning and sustainable tourism.

Not only proactive in international cooperation, Da Nang is also an active and responsible member of multilateral organisations such as the Network of Local Authorities for the Management of Human Settlements (CITYNET), the PEMSEA Network of Local Governments (PNLG), and the World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO).

Moreover, the city's leaders have performed well as the chair of PNLG since December 2021. In particular, they coordinated the PNLG General Assembly meeting in Xiamen, China on November 7, 2024. Through participating in forums and local networks, the image of the city was increasingly known to international friends as a dynamic and active locality.

Positioning as Asia's leading event destination

In 2024, Da Nang continued to rise to fame as a modern city, and an attractive, safe, green, clean, beautiful, friendly and hospitable destination in the eyes of international friends.

Most interestingly, the city captured the second place after Bangkok China town in Conde Nast Traveller (CN Traveler)’s list of the 11 best places to visit in Asia in 2024. It was the top choice to organise international events in many fields.

During the year, an array of international festivals, and cultural and sporting events were held in the city, including the Viet Nam - Japan Festival, Viet Nam – South Korea Festival, Da Nang International Fireworks Festival (DIFF), Da Nang International Marathon, IRONMAN 70.3 Vietnam Competition, Da Nang Asian Film Festival, Golf Festival and Asian Golf Tournament, Viet Nam - Brazil Football Festival, and Asian Taekwondo Championship.

All the aforementioned-events left beautiful impressions in the eyes of international friends, affirming Da Nang's position as "Asia's leading event and festival destination". The number of international visitors to Da Nang in 2024 rose significantly to hit 10.3 million, of which international visitors were 4.2 million, 2.1 times higher than the same period in 2023.

Along with the development of political diplomacy, economic diplomacy and cultural diplomacy, Da Nang continuously promoted people-to-people diplomacy. People-to-people diplomacy activities were increasingly organised in a diverse and rich manner, attracting the participation of people from all walks of life in the city and creating prestige with international friends.

A highlight in the city's people-to-people diplomacy picture was the strong development of cooperative relations with foreign non-governmental organisations. The city mobilised and received 41 aid programmes and projects with a total committed budget of more than US$ 4.6 million, up 65.8% of the total number of projects compared to the same period in 2023. This contributed to the good implementation of programmes and plans on social security targets of the city.

It can be seen that, in the face of both advantages and challenges in the integration context, Da Nang has had breakthrough thinking, creating a spearhead for development, while helping to enhance the city's position. The city's foreign affairs have maximised internal and external strength, focused on economic integration, complied with and took advantage of signed international agreements. It also adapted to sustainable factors, innovated, developed inclusively, and maintained the spirit of "bamboo diplomacy", contributing to strongly promoting the message of a dynamic, integrated and developing city.

The city’s foreign affairs achievements in 2024 greatly contributed to promoting Da Nang to make a breakthrough in economic development in 2025 with the theme "The year of focusing on arranging and streamlining the apparatus associated with cutting administrative procedures, effectively implementing the organisation of urban government and specific mechanisms and policies to strongly promote economic growth".

NGUYEN XUAN BINH - Director of the Da Nang Department of Foreign Affairs

Translating by MAI DUNG