Danish Queen to visit Vietnam; President receives Russian Minister; Cooperative ties with UK highly valued; Deputy PM receives Rok-Vietnam friendship association president; Border provinces strengthen cooperation

Danish Queen Margrethe.

The queen’s visit, accompanied by the Danish Crown Prince and Princess and the Minister of Culture, aims to build up long-term relations for future generations of the two countries by holding more activities, seminars and visits.

The visit also aims to coordinate efforts in solving the challenges presented by the climate and the environment, in the context that Denmark will host the United Nations conference on climate change in December. Vietnam is one of the countries that will suffer most from the problem.

Apart from meetings between the Danish Royal Family and Vietnamese officials, more than 70 leading Danish enterprises will participate in a business forum which is scheduled to take place in Hanoi on November 3 and Ho Chi Minh City on November 6.

On this occasion, the Royal Family will enjoy cultural activities held by the Danish embassy in Vietnam and visit development assistance projects which help reduce the country’s poverty.

President receives Russian Minister

On October 21, President Nguyen Minh Triet received Russia’s Minister of Industry and Trade, Victor Khristenko, who was in Hanoi for the 13th meeting of the Vietnam-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee.

At the reception, President Triet and Russian Minister Khristenko expressed their delight at the fine development of Vietnam-Russia relations over the past years. Apart from traditional political relationship, there has been effective cooperation in the fields of economics, trade and investment between the two countries. Along with their successful

oil and gas exploitation, both countries have considered cooperating in other fields such as manufacturing and automobile assembly.

President Triet stated that Vietnam has many projects that would benefit from working with Russian enterprises in such fields as aviation, atomic power, and metro. Mr Triet praised the Vietnam-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee for approving a roadmap for implementation of its mid-term action plan for trade and investment cooperation on until 2010.

For his part, Minister Khristenko affirmed that Russia has always considered Vietnam a gateway for its goods to enter other countries in the region. Along with Russia-Vietnam co-operation in a third country, Russia has also attached importance to co-production projects in Vietnam. He said many Russian businesses have signed agreements with Vietnamese partners at the Vietnam International Industrial Fair 2009 being held in Hanoi.

Cooperative ties with UK highly valued

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai has reiterated that the Vietnamese Government always treasures its cooperation with the United Kingdom and pledges to create the best possible conditions for British businesses to expand investment in Vietnam for mutual benefit.

Mr Hai led a high-level Vietnamese government delegation to meet with senior leaders of the UK parliament and government and leading economic groups on October 20 as part of the official visit to the UK.

The Deputy PM met with the leader of the Liberal Democrats party, Nick Clegg, at the UK Parliament and briefed him on Vietnam’s achievements, affirming that Vietnam wants to strengthen its relations with European countries, especially the UK.

Mr Hai said he hopes the Liberal Democrats will support a policy of comprehensive cooperation with Vietnam, particularly in politics, diplomacy, trade, investment, development, education and training, migration and fighting organized crime.

Deputy Prime Minister Hai also met with Member of Parliament Ben Chapman and the MP group of UK-Vietnam friendship and talked with Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Peter Mandelson.

The UK leaders proposed specific steps to build Vietnam-UK ties into a partnership for development.

The UK has become one of Vietnam’s leading economic partners. Bilateral trade has grown consecutively by 15-20 percent per year and hit more than US$2 billion in 2008.

The two sides discussed ways to increase bilateral trade and British investment in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese delegation mentioned some areas where Vietnam needs more assistance from the UK such as constructing financial institutions and legal frameworks, and training high-skilled human resources for trade, securities, finance, banking and assurance.

On the same day, Mr Hai met with leaders from the UK’s industrial and financial groups such as Rolls-Royce and Prudential, who expressed their hopes to step up their investment in Vietnam in the future.

Deputy PM receives Rok-Vietnam friendship association president

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong received Choi Young Joo, President of the Republic of Korea (RoK) – Vietnam Friendship Association on October 20.

Choi Young Joo thanked the Vietnamese Deputy PM for his reception and affirmed that his association will continue to be a friendship link between the two countries’ people.

Deputy PM Trong spoke highly of Choi Young Joo and his association’s contributions to developing the RoK-Vietnam friendship and cooperation, especially in the fields of culture, arts, economic and trade.

He expressed his hope that the association would create favourable conditions for nearly 90,000 Vietnamese expatriates living and working in the RoK.

Since its establishment in August 2001, the RoK-Vietnam Friendship Association’s membership has gathered together a large number of RoK politicians and economists.

Vietnam, Russia keen to bring more benefits to their people

Vietnam and Russia should re-examine their prioritised projects regularly in the 2009-2012 period, especially those in energy, science and technology as part of an effort to deepen their strategic partnership and bring practical benefits to their people.

The statement was made by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung at a reception in Hanoi on October 20 for the visiting Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, Victor Khristenko, who is in Hanoi for a meeting of the Vietnam-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee.

The PM was briefed on the Russian minister’s talks with Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang where both agreed upon ways and means to strengthen relations in economics, trade and investment.

The Vietnamese leader expressed satisfaction at the practical and wide-ranging developments in the two countries’ traditional relationship and reiterated that Vietnam always attaches importance to its traditional friendship and strategic partnership with Russia.

He suggested that both sides should closely coordinate in carrying out the agreements that were reached at this Inter-governmental Committee meeting, and in particular, removing difficulties that are hindering bilateral cooperation projects.

The Russian guest told his host that the visit offers him a chance to witness the effective implementation of the previously agreed cooperative deals in economics, trade, investment, energy, education and training.

He said during this Inter-governmental Committee meeting, the two sides signed an action plan to boost their economies, two-way trade and investment through 2012. This action plan also details prioritised tasks for the Vietnam-Russia strategic partnership to be undertaken annually.

According to the Russian minister, hi-tech and energy cooperation was a bright spot in the two countries’ relationship in 2009.

Prime Minister receives President of RoK’s EDCF

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on October 20 met with Kim Dong-soo, President of the Republic of Korea (RoK)’s Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) and the Export-Import Bank of Korea (EXIMBANK) during his working visit to Vietnam.

PM Dung highly appreciated the assistance of EDCF and EXIMBANK to Vietnam in recent years.

He proposed that the RoK give priority to funding projects to develop infrastructure, specifically the traffic networks like the Hanoi-Hai Phong, Hanoi-HCM City express ways and the HCM City-Nha Trang and HCM City-Can Tho railway routes.

Mr. Kim Dong-soo promised to encourage Korean businesses to take part in investment projects in Vietnam and contribute to strengthening relations between the two countries.

EDCF’s President also announced to PM Dung that EXIMBANK is prepared to grant the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) a loan worth US$50 million to import equipment from the RoK.

Vietnam-Cuba Inter-Governmental committee for cooperation meets in Havana

The Party, Government and people of Cuba want to expand economic and trade cooperation with Vietnam to further strengthen the time-honoured friendship between the two nations, said a senior Cuban official.

Cuban Minister of Construction Fidel Figueroa made the statement at the 27th meeting of the Vietnam-Cuba Inter-Governmental Committee for Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation in Havana on October 19.

Minister Figueroa, who is head of the Cuba-Vietnam Sub-committee for cooperation, thanked Vietnam for supplying rice to Cuba and implementing projects to grow rice, maize and soybean in the country with total capitalization of US$3.4 million. He said that these projects have helped Cuba complete its cooking security programme.

He expressed satisfaction with effective cooperation between Vietnam and Cuba in informatics and construction, as well as in the exchange of goods between their businesses through trade fairs held in their respective countries.

For his part, Vietnamese Minister of Construction Nguyen Hong Quan, who is head of the Vietnam-Cuba Sub-committee for cooperation, noted that despite the negative impact of the global economic crisis, the two countries have fulfilled most targets set at the previous session.

However, the results have not yet matched their potential, said Mr Quan, adding that both countries should increase cooperation in food production, trade, oil&gas, bio-technology, investment, information and communication technology.

A business forum was held the same day as part of the meeting, drawing the participation of representatives from 200 Cuban and Vietnamese companies.

Border provinces strengthen cooperation

The central Vietnamese province of Quang Binh and its Laotian counterpart, Khammouan, have recently boosted bilateral trade across their common border and stepped up cooperation in many other fields.

Over the past 10 months, cross-border trade hit US$38.4 million, up 44 percent from 2008, according to leaders from the two provinces, who met in Quang Binh’s city of Dong Hoi on October 20.

There are now two coach trips per week between Dong Hoi and Thakhek town in Khammouan.

Since 2006, Quang Binh has received and trained 42 students from Khammouan at Quang Binh University. In 2009, it sent four teachers to the Laotian province to help educate and train local people. It also invested VND9 billion in building a two-storey school in Thakhek.

Meanwhile, Khammouan has assisted its Vietnamese counterpart in searching for and repatriating the remains of 139 volunteer Vietnamese soldiers who were killed on the Lao battlefield. It has joined Quang Binh in placing border markers along their common border.

The authorities of the two provinces proposed that their countries allow transport through the Ca Roong-Noong Ma border gate and upgrade it into a main one. They also agreed to accelerate investment, trade and tourism promotion in their respective provinces and introduced business incentives to turn their border into one of peace, friendship, stability and development.

PV