Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and his spouse arrived in Hanoi on April 3 at the start of an official visit to Vietnam that will last until April 5.

The visit is being made at an invitation by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and aims to strengthen the two countries’ bilateral friendship and comprehensive cooperation.

The Malaysian leader is accompanied by foreign minister Datuk Anifah Aman, minister of industry and international trade YB Dato’ Sri MUstapa Mohamed, and minister of agriculture YB Dato’ Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, among others.

Malaysia is Vietnam’s ninth largest trade partner with two-way trade hitting 9.1 billion USD in 2013.

At the end of last year, it ranked eighth among countries and territories investing in Vietnam with more than 400 projects worth over 10 billion USD while Vietnam had 10 projects with more than 740 million USD in Malaysia.

Vietnam and Malaysia have signed a number of agreements on aviation, maritime cooperation, science and technology, and telecommunications.-VNA