The United Arab Emirates (UAE) wants to further boost its multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam, especially in trade and investment.

UAE Minister of Economics Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri affirmed this stance at a press briefing in Hanoi on November 24 on the threshold of the first session of the Vietnam-UAE Joint Committee scheduled for November 25.

According to the minister, besides strengthening trade and investment cooperation, the UAE also wants to discuss measures to expand cooperation in seaports, aviation, oil, gas and petrochemicals.

The UAE and Vietnam have cooperated in building the Saigon Premier Centre Terminal in Ho Chi Minh City, he added.

In addition, the UAE wishes to strengthen agricultural cooperation with Vietnam as food security is a very important issue for the desert country.

Minister Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri recommended that Vietnam, which boasts a strong agricultural sector, should maintain and develop agriculture in order to join the world’s production line of high-value agricultural products.

The UAE wants to benefit from Vietnam’s agricultural development experiences to ensure food security and is ready to help Vietnam improve the position of its agricultural products, he said.

The minister said he is pleased with developments in economic and trade relations between the UAE and Vietnam in recent years with a two-way trade growth of over 40 percent per year, reaching around 500 million USD in 2009.

He expressed his hope that Vietnam would suggest areas that may be strengthened to raise two-way trade to 1 billion USD in the next 3-5 years.

The minister also spoke highly of Vietnam’s investment environment, especially after the two countries signed agreements on investment protection and double-taxation avoidance during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to the UAE last year.

Besides economic and trade cooperation, the UAE government and businesses have also paid special attention to humanitarian and social welfare sectors in Vietnam./.