Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan has made a working visit to Argentina as part of a project to enhance the leadership capacity of women for international integration jointly implemented by the Foreign Ministry and the United Nations Development Programme.

During the three-day visit, which concluded on July 2, Ngan paid a courtesy call to the Provisional President of the Argentine National Congress’ Senate Gerardo Zamora.

She also had working sessions with leaders of the Committees for Foreign Relations of the Argentine National Congress’ Senate and Chamber of Deputies, the Chamber’s Committee for Women, Family, Children and Youth, and the Friendship Parliamentarian Group with Vietnam in the Chamber of Deputies.

Ngan also met with specialists and researchers at the Argentina’s ruling Justicialist Party’s institution for politics research and training.

During the meetings, the two sides expressed pleasure at the progress in bilateral friendship and cooperation recently, especially the regular exchange of visits and a surge in two-way trade to a record figure of 1.6 billion USD in 2013 from 316 million USD in 2007, as well as the effective mutual coordination at multilateral forums.

They also pointed to the potential in bilateral investment partnership. Representatives from the Argentine National Congress expressed hope that Vietnam creates further favourable conditions for Argentine businesses to invest in Vietnam , especially in the fields of wind electricity and hydropower, while beefing up relations among localities of both sides.

The two sides also vowed to deepen affiliation between the two legislative bodies by increasing meetings of high-ranking leaders and heads of committees, sharing law-making experience and viewpoints on regional and international of mutual concerns.

The Argentine side said that the country’s Senate will form a friendship parliamentarians group with Vietnam soon.

NA Chairwoman Ngan also spent much time discussing issues related to gender equality, the enhancement of women’s leadership in society and the protection of women and children’s rights.

Argentine officials shared their experience in designing legal framework to ensure gender equality, including the building of the law on proportion of women holding elected positions.

Ngan also briefed them on the socio-economic situation in Vietnam and the country’s foreign policies as well as the current situation in the East Sea .

The Argentine legislators and experts lauded Vietnam’s stance of persistently safeguarding national sovereignty and settling disputes through peaceful measures in accordance with international law.

During the visit’s framework, Secretary of the Party Committee of Quang Ninh Province Pham Minh Chinh, who accompanied Ngan, had a meeting with Julia Perie, President of the Argentine Chamber’s Friendship Parliamentarian Group with Vietnam.

Chinh discussed with Perie, who is a deputy from Missiones province home to one of the new World Wonders - Iguazu Fall, the possibility to set up twin relations between the two provinces as well as ways to boost their cooperation in tourism and the preservation and development of world heritages and natural wonders.-VNA