The Government of Vietnam will facilitate and create most favourable conditions for its businesses to conduct offshore investment, including investment in Myanmar, affirmed Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The Vietnamese government leader made the affirmation at a conference to promote Vietnam ’s investment in Myanmar held in Yangon on April 3 as part of his on-going visit to the country.

He expressed his hope that the Myanmar government and State agencies would adopt measures to encourage and assist Vietnamese investors for mutual benefits.

He pledged that the two governments would negotiate to solve policy hindrances between the two countries in the spirit of friendship, cooperation and most convenience for two-way investment and trade.

PM Dung said over the past time bilateral relations saw fruitful development, not only in politics, diplomacy and culture but also in trade, tourism and investment, bringing practical benefits to both sides.

The two countries signed and implemented numerous legal documents on bilateral cooperation and set up necessary mechanisms for coordination in development of their ties.

According to the PM, despite many objective difficulties in connecting the two economies, bilateral economic and trade relations constantly increased in recent years. Two-way trade reached 97 million USD in 2007 and hit 108 million USD in 2008.

He stressed that the signing of economic cooperation agreements and contracts, especially the open of a direct air route between the two countries, were optimistic signs, creating an important prerequisite for development of tourism, trade and investment relations in the coming time.

Addressing the conference, Myanmar Trade Minister Tyn Naing Thein affirmed that Myanmar was ready to support investment projects and create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to invest in the country, particularly in financial and banking sectors, telecom, mining, agriculture and fisheries.

After the conference, PM Dung and ranking officials of Myanmar witnessed the granting of investment license of the Vietnamese Government to Vietnam ’s investment projects in Myanmar and the debut of the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar .

The same day, PM Dung and his entourage attended the opening ceremony of the Fair of Vietnamese products and the representative office of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) in Myanmar./.