G-20 economies should continue efforts to maintain a stable economic environment, build a mechanism to prevent and address crises, facilitate developing countries’ trade activities and provide resources for the implementation of MDGs.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made this statement at the Forum on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which took place in Seoul , the Republic of Korea, on November 11 on the sidelines of the on-going G-20 Summit.

The forum was also attended by the UN Secretary-General, the Spanish Prime Minister, the South African President and the Speaker of the RoK Parliament, together with over 100 RoK parliamentarians and representatives from NGOs.

PM Dung said that Vietnam has fulfilled many MGDs ahead of schedule and will try its utmost to reach all remaining goals in 2015. “These achievements have been reached, thanks to the fact that MDGs were integrated into development strategies, policies and plans at all levels and implemented through national objective programmes with the participation of the entire society,” he said.

The Government leader spoke highly of the international community’s support for Vietnam in implementing MDGs.

At the forum, PM Dung and other leaders also highly valued the UN’s role in accelerating discussions and exchanges on methods to solve problems in implementing MDGs.

They emphasised the significance of the G-20 Summit being held for the first time in an Asian country, the RoK, which is the first country moving from being an aid recipient to a provider of development assistance, as well as calling on G20 to continue providing assistance for developing countries in order to help them achieve MGDs in 2015.

The delegates applauded the inclusion of development issues in the summit’s agenda, saying that it represented G20’s political determination to realise its commitments. They urged developed countries, NGOs, and business community to support developing nations’ MDGs implementation.

The implementation of MGDs has helped hundreds of millions of people escape from poverty, strengthened care and investment for women and children, boosted the prevention of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases and mobilised international resources.

However, many countries are unlikely to reach all MGDs by the deadline of 2015 due to the negative impacts of the financial, monetary, energy and cooking crises and climate change.

PM Dung meets RoK, Italian partners

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung had an exchange of views with Prime Minister Kim Hwang-sik of the Republic of Korea in Seoul on Nov. 11.

PM Kim praised PM Dung’s participation in the G-20 Summit in Seoul and described the move as a vital contribution of Vietnam with the role as ASEAN Chair to the success of the summit.

PM Kim stressed that the RoK attaches importance to developing friendship and cooperation with Vietnam and is ready to cooperate with Vietnam to bring the RoK-Vietnam strategic cooperation partnership to a new stage.

He affirmed that the RoK always considers Vietnam as one of the focuses in its policy on Official Development Assistance (ODA) and pledged its government will continue to provide a higher volume of ODA to Vietnam and encourage Korean enterprises to boost investment in Vietnam , especially in infrastructure, energy, hi-tech and green development.

The RoK PM highly appreciated contributions of the Vietnamese community in the RoK and pledged to create more favourable conditions for them, particularly Vietnamese brides.

PM Dung affirmed that the RoK is one of Vietnam’s leading economic partners and expressed his wish that the two countries should maintain high-level visits and exchanges, implement the dialogue mechanism on foreign affairs, security and national defence, as well as boosting cooperation in science and technology, education and training and exchanges between the two peoples.

PM Dung also wished that the two governments would join efforts to maintain trade growth and achieve a trade turnover of 20 billion USD by 2015.

He also asked the RoK side to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese products to enter its market to improve the imbalance in trade between the two countries.

The two PMs expressed their pleasures at new steps in development of relations between the two countries.

They agreed to further boost cooperation at regional and international events, including the UN, WTO, APEC, G-20 and ASEAN plus.

The RoK side praised Vietnam for successfully hosting the 17 th ASEAN Summit and related summits last month.

PM Dung conveyed his thanks to President Lee Myung-bak for attending those summits and making marked contributions to them. He invited PM Kim Hwang-sik to pay an official visit to Vietnam and the latter accepted the invitation with pleasure.

The same day, PM Dung met with Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi, discussing measures to boost economic relations in trade and investment between the two countries.

The two PMs shared the same view that their countries have great potential to expand cooperation in the fields of Italy ’s strengths and Vietnam ’s demands, like infrastructure, education, healthcare, light industry and communications.

PM Dung said that Vietnam attaches importance to boosting comprehensive cooperation with Italy . He highly valued the effectiveness of Italian investment projects in Vietnam and asked Italy to continue providing ODA to Vietnam , focusing on environment, healthcare and small and medium enterprises.

PM Silvio Berlusconi said that Vietnam is an active and dynamic economy in the region and more and more Italian friends and enterprises are becoming interested and want to boost cooperation and investment in Vietnam .

Exchanging views on international issues of mutual concern, the two PMs praised the role and position of each side at regional and international organisations and forums.

PM Dung said that Vietnam is ready to be a bridge to boost ties between Italy with ASEAN and ASEAN-EU ties. Meanwhile, PM Silvio Berlusconi affirmed his support for Vietnam to develop ties with the EU and European countries.

Source: VNA