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Vietnam's top leader visits US for first time as president

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He is set to meet Biden later on Wednesday

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Meta pledges to up investments, Lam meets Apple ( AAPL ), to meet

Google

(Updates with Meta comments in paragraphs 6-10)

By Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio

Sept 25 (Reuters) - Vietnam's President To Lam pledged

to boost the domestic tech economy, as he met top U.S. firms in

New York, including Meta, which pledged to expand

investments in the Communist-ruled country with a population of

100 million.

In his first visit to the United States as Vietnam's

president, Lam is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Joe

Biden later on Wednesday.

In addition to Meta, Lam held private meetings with Apple ( AAPL )

, and financial companies Blackstone and Warburg

Pincus, according to pictures of handshakes with the companies'

representatives published on Vietnam's government portal.

Lam, who is also the general secretary of the Communist

Party, Vietnam's most powerful job, plans to meet Google

later on Wednesday, according to a person familiar

with his schedule, confirming a Reuters report from last week.

At the meeting with Lam on Monday, Meta's President for

global affairs Nick Clegg shared plans for production in Vietnam

of virtual reality glasses, according to Vietnam's government

portal.

Meta, which has tens of millions of users in Vietnam of its

Facebook social media, declined to comment about the report

noting it was expecting to issue a statement next week.

Vietnamese state media had earlier reported that Clegg

will attend an innovation event in Vietnam at the start of

October.

At the meeting with Lam in New York, "Nick shared Meta's

commitment to support and expand investment programs and

encourage innovation in Vietnam in the near future," Khoi Le,

Meta's director for Vietnam, said on LinkedIn on Wednesday.

"This meeting marks an important step in our journey

towards building a stronger presence in Vietnam and contributing

to the country's digital transformation," he added.

No mention was made in public statements about

controversial issues such as Vietnam's requirement to store data

in the country and frequent requests by Vietnamese censors to

remove posts from Facebook.

At a separate business forum, Lam signed cooperation

agreements with U.S. firms on energy, artificial intelligence

and for a data centre, the government said.

Other participants included representatives of tech firm

Amazon ( AMZN ), payment company Visa, consumer goods

multinational Procter & Gamble ( PG ) and energy firm AES ( AES )

.

Lam "has made it absolutely clear that his presidency, his

time as general secretary, they're going to grow the tech

economy," Ted Osius, head of the US-ASEAN Business Council, the

advocacy group which co-hosted the event, told Reuters.

In meetings with U.S. companies, Lam said Vietnam considered

digital transformation as a driving force to take the country

into a new era, according to the government portal.

"Developing the semiconductor and AI industries is ... a

strategic choice and a priority," Lam said.