(Illustrative Photo: VNA) Brussels (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s recent working trip to Europe was covered by several local newspapers over the last two days.
According to RTBF, the public broadcasting organisation of the French community in Belgium , Prime Minister Charles Michel and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung agreed to a range of economic deals during their talks at Van Duchesse Castle on December 2.
Among these agreements, Vietnam intends to buy a Belgian satellite for earth observation worth 70 million EUR. Michel also mentioned Rent-A-Port investing 250 million EUR in Dinh Vu Industrial Park in Vietnam’s northern province of Hai Phong. Rent-A-Port is an engineering and investment company that specialises in the development of marine infrastructure and industrial zones.
The article highlighted a statement the Belgian PM made to Belga News Agency, in which he said he strongly supports local businesses’ projects in Vietnam.
The L’antenne posted on its website about the signing that concluded more than two years of negotiations of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). This was the first time the EU sealed an FTA with a developing country. The pact is expected to eliminate 99 percent of tariffs within seven years of taking effect.
Europe Presse Image, an online newspaper, cited Franck Proust, a member of the European Parliament’s Group of the European People's Party, as saying the FTA with Vietnam represents the future of the EU ’s economic policy – balanced, ambitious and up-to-date.
Proust said he understood the EVFTA ’s great potential during his visit to Vietnam last April. The pact would help European businesses access the Vietnamese market and assist Vietnam’s products as they enter the European market.-VNA
