The fourth meeting of the Vietnam-Argentina Inter-governmental Committee on Cooperation took place in Buenos Aires on October 29-30, discussing specific measures to boost bilateral collaboration for mutual benefit.

The meeting was co-chaired by Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and the Secretary of State for International Economic Relations at the Argentinean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Religions, Carlos Bianco.

Both sides agreed on mechanisms and specific measures to enhance bilateral ties in economics, trade, investment, agriculture, energy, technology, education, culture and health.

They expressed satisfaction with a rapid increase in two-way trade in recent years despite global economic difficulties, sharing a target to diversify traded products while considering ways to achieve balanced bilateral trade.

The Vietnamese side wished to export more tropical fruits, rice and coffee to Argentina, while the Latin American country proposed accelerating quarantine negotiations to allow it to sell citrus fruits, blueberry, pear, apple and cherry to Vietnam.

At the meeting, the Argentinean side also proposed signing memoranda of understanding on cooperation in communications, industry and bio-technology between the two countries’ relevant ministries.

For the 2014-2016 period, the two sides agreed to continue implementing projects related to controlling hoof-and-mouth disease on cattle, preserving farm produce post-harvest, increasing the quality of cattle-feed and applying biological technology to producing high-productivity soybeans and rice varieties.

The Argentinean side urged speeding up negotiations on a cooperation programme between the two education ministries on granting scholarships to talented persons in priority fields during 2015-2018.

During his stay in Argentina, Deputy Minister Tran Tuan Anh also met with Chief of the Cabinet of Ministers Jorge Capitanich and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Religions Hector Timerman.-VNA