Over the years, economic diplomacy has truly played a crucial role in promoting Da Nang’s economic development as well as expanding cooperation between the city and international partners, thereby helping the city soon realise its goals of becoming a worth-living and worth-investing destination.

A representative of the the Da Nang Semiconductor and Artificial Intelligence Center for Research and Training (first right) exchanged a quadripartite memorandum of understanding with partners to promote the development of the city's semiconductor industry. Photo: THANH PHUONG

Economic diplomacy hallmarks

To make economic diplomacy become a key component in all external affairs and a pivotal driving force in the socio-economic development of the city, the municipal Department of Foreign Affairs has embarked on connecting and attracting international investors involving high technology, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, free trade zones, financial centers, etc.

In January 2025, the Department advised the municipal People's Committee to successfully organize the City Partnership Forum - Da Nang 2025 (Meet Da Nang 2025).

Many international agreements and minutes were signed between Da Nang and its foreign partners during the event. In particular, the city granted investment certificates to the Aeon Vietnam Co., Ltd. for the US$ 3 million Aeon Mall Vietnam project; the ICT Vina Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Dentium Group (Korea) with a registered investment capital of US$ 177 million; the Viedam Joint Venture Co., Ltd. with an investment capital of US$ 10 million; and the Danang International Data Center JSC in Viet Nam with a total investment of US$ 31.4 million.

Previously, the city signed cooperation agreements with Singapore-headquartered Makara Capital; Singapore’s Terne Holdings Group and the Viet Nam Blockchain Association at a conference on developing International Financial Centers in Viet Nam, the city.

The 13^th National Party Congress identified economic diplomacy as one of the five key tasks. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised the necessity to synchronously implement economic diplomacy to actively grasp great opportunities in science and technology, education - training, digital transformation, and green development.

With the spirit, the city's foreign affairs sector has proactively connected leading corporations and enterprises in the fields of semiconductors and artificial intelligence (AI) to explore investment and cooperation opportunities in Da Nang. Thanks to this, the city has connected and worked with 18 large corporations in the world and related partners in the above-mentioned fields such as Qualcomm Corporation, Marvell Corporation, Synopsys Company, NVIDIA Company, Swiss EP Organization, etc. Notably, the Semiconductor Da Nang Day 2024 was successfully organized in August 2024.

At present, the presence of leading US semiconductor companies such as Synopsys and Marvell in Da Nang is the clearest evidence of the city's potential and opportunities to deeply participate in the global semiconductor supply chain.

Over the years, Da Nang has maximised bilateral cooperation programmes to exploit economic diplomacy. To date, the city has established friendly and cooperative relations with more than 50 localities of 24 countries and territories worldwide.

Through signed agreements, the city has coordinated with foreign localities to organize many programmes to promote investment, trade, and tourism; as well as connected cooperation programmes in the fields of science, technology, and innovation. In particular, Da Nang and South Korea’s Daegu City together carried out a project to build an integrated centre for controlling green and smart urban resilience (ENSUNRE) in Da Nang sponsored by KOICA with a total budget of up to US$ 10 million. Also, the city worked with Japan’s Sakai City on the green port development project; and with Japan’s Yokohama City on urban planning and management.

Da Nang is increasingly affirming its brand as a safe and attractive investment destination for domestic and foreign investors. Investment resources have played a very important role in promoting the city's socio-economic development. Foreign direct investment (FDI) is continuously poured into Da Nang by investors.

In 2024, the city attracted US$ 213.4 million in FDI capital and VND 70.9 trillion in domestic capital. Accumulated to November 25, 2024, the city had 1,011 FDI projects with a total investment capital of nearly US$ 4.527 billion. In the 2019-2023 period, the city attracted US$ 1.41 billion in FDI capital, ranking 3^rd out of 14 provinces and cities in the North Central and Central Coast regions. It must be affirmed that foreign affairs and international integration have promoted the pioneering role in combining economic diplomacy with political diplomacy and cultural diplomacy to open up, expand and deepen the cooperative relations of Da Nang with its strategic partners.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Tien, Deputy Head of the Management Board of High-Tech Park and Industrial Parks (right) exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding with a representative of Andersen Vietnam Co., Ltd. Photo: T.PHUONG

Economic diplomacy identified as spearhead

In his remarks at the City Partnership Forum - Da Nang 2025 (Meet Da Nang), municipal Party Committee Secretary Nguyen Van Quang emphasised that Da Nang identified economic diplomacy as one of its spearhead economic sectors, with a focus on promoting science and technology diplomacy.

Accordingly, the Department of Foreign Affairs advised the municipal People's Committee to issue a master plan for economic diplomacy in the city for the 2021-2025 period. In particular, heed will be on considering local-level cooperation and the network of cooperative cities as levers for promotion activities in areas of interest to the city such as investment, trade, finance, tourism, high-tech industry, semiconductor technology, artificial intelligence, science - technology, innovation, education, health, and environment. Also, efforts will be made to mobilise foreign support sources, plus the participation and contributions of the overseas Vietnamese community, to contribute to the city's development.

In the new period, global supply chains and production networks will be shifted and rearranged to disperse risks, reduce dependence on the markets of some countries, and seek more stable markets such as some emerging ones in Southeast Asia, South Asia, North America and Latin America.

This is the golden time for Da Nang to further promote its role in economic diplomacy, brand promotion, investment and trade. Da Nang will target strategic investors who will invest in innovation centres, data centres, research and development (R&D) centres associated with training; research and support the transfer of high technology in the fields of information technology, AI technology, clean energy; and projects on semiconductors, semi-conductor Integrated circuits, component manufacturing, integrated circuits (IC), flexible electronics, new technology batteries, and defense industry.

In addition, priority will be given to attracting investment in construction and business of infrastructure of functional areas in the Da Nang Free Trade Zone, especially the regional financial center in the city.

Attracting strategic international partners in the aforementioned key areas is gradually concretising Resolution No. 136/2024/QH15 on the organization of urban government and piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the development of Da Nang and Notice No. 47-TB/TW concluding the construction of regional and international financial centers in Viet Nam.

Reporting by THANH PHUONG - Translating by M.DUNG