Today’s Economic Development Cooperation

SECO is part of the Swiss Federal Department of Economic Affairs (FDEA) and is responsible for the planning and implementation of economic and trade policy measures with developing countries. SECO’s main aims are to integrate partner countries into the global economy and to promote the sustainable economic growth of these countries, thus contributing to poverty reduction. SECO focuses its support on themes where it can add most value. SECO’s support is intended to trigger and complement efforts made by our partner governments, regional entities, and the private sector.

SECO Vietnam program

The overriding objective of Switzerland’s international cooperation is sustainable global development that will reduce poverty and global risks. SECO focuses globally on Economic Development Cooperation aimed at sustainable economic growth in its partner countries. It does so by promoting the integration of the partners into the world economy, by strengthening domestic competitiveness and by optimizing global partnership in cooperation.

In Vietnam, SECO aims to support inclusive and sustainable economic growth to improve the lives of Vietnamese people. SECO is working on this main goal through the following three topical objectives:

        1. Foster effective economic policies and institutions

        2. Create a competitive and resource-efficient private sector

        3. Enable sustainable and climate-resilient urban development

Core fields of work are related to public financial management, financial sector strengthening, access to finance for SME, promotion of environmental and social sustainability standards, resource efficient and clean production, framework conditions for sustainable trade, efficient business enabling environment, integrated urban planning as well as access to reliable public services.

SECO uses a mix of modalities for its development cooperation such as budget support, project support to provide technical and financial assistance, capacity building at individual, organizational and institutional level, as well as infrastructure financing.

Further details on three country specific objectives can be found in the Vietnam Country Strategy 2017-2020:

SECO country strategy  2017-2020 full version (PDF, Number of pages 24, 784.9 kB, English)

SECO country strategy  2017-2020 short version (PDF, Number of pages 16, 3.4 MB, English)

SECO country strategy  2017-2020 short version (PDF, Number of pages 16, 3.4 MB, Vietnamese) 

Financial Resources

In the following table, you find Swiss financial contributions on development and cooperation in Vietnam.