President Tran Dai Quang welcomes New Zealand Ambassador Wendy Irene Matthews (Photo: VNA) At a reception for New Zealand Ambassador Wendy IreneMatthews, President Quang expressed his delight at the growing Vietnam-NewZealand ties since the two countries set up their comprehensive partnership in2009 and issued a joint statement on comprehensive partnership towardsstrategic partnership in 2015.
He proposed that the two sides should define contents androadmaps for their strategic partnership, while coordinating in the building ofthe Vietnam-New Zealand action programme for the new period and organise the sixthsession of the Joint Committee for Economic and Trade soon.
He said he hopes the ambassador will contribute to thestrengthening of cooperation between ministries, sectors, localities andbusinesses of both sides to raise two-way trade to 1.7 billion USD in 2020.
The State leader also suggested that the New Zealand willsupport Vietnamese firms in increasing export products to the country,especially farm produce and apparel, while continue assisting Vietnam insustainable development, climate change response and natural disaster riskmanagement.
Vietnam,as the chair of the APEC Year 2017, hopes for continued cooperation from New Zealand tothe success of the event, he said. The President took the occasion to invite New Zealand Prime Minister to visit Vietnam toattend the APEC Summit Week 2017.
On her part, Ambassador Matthews highlighted the highpotential for Vietnam and New Zealand tolift up their ties to strategic partnership as they share firm foundation ofsound cooperation in politics, economics and defence.
She affirmed that New Zealandhopes to foster collaboration with Vietnam in multilateral frameworkssuch as the RCEP and TPP.
Welcoming Timor Leste Pascoela Barreto dos Santos,President Quang stated that Vietnamalways attaches much importance to partnership with Timor Leste and wishes tofurther the ties both bilaterally and multilaterally.
He held that a number of agreements signed between the twocountries have paved the way for expanding economic and trade relations. ThePresident suggested Ambassador Santos help step up exchanges of delegations atall levels and through all channels of State, parliament, Government andpeople-to-people contacts, thus deepening mutual trust and understanding.
He also urged both sides to finalise internal procedures toput the bilateral trade deal into operation, while speeding up the bilateralinvestment protection agreement and effectively implement the memorandum ofunderstanding on rice trade for the 2015-2017 period.
The State leader said he hopes Timor Leste to continue facilitatingViettel Group’s operation, affirming that Vietnam always welcomes and backsTimor Leste businesses.
The Timor Leste diplomat stated that her country treasuresties with Vietnamand is keen on boosting people-to-people relations with the country. TimorLeste encourage Vietnamese firms, especially those in the telecommunicationarea, to invest in the country, she said, pledging to coordinate withVietnamese authorities to create a breakthrough in bilateral partnership,especially in economy, trade and investment.
At a meeting with Ambassador of Cote d’Ivoire Dosso Adama,President Tran Dai Quang lauded the African country’s cooperation with Vietnamat international forums, expressing his hope that Cote d’Ivoire will supportVietnamese Ambassador and President’s Special Envoy Pham Sanh Chau to run forthe post of UNESCO Director General for the 2017-2021 period as well asVietnam’s candidacy for non-permanent membership at the UN Security Council inthe 2020-2021.
He underlined the important role of Cote d’Ivoire as the second largest tradepartner of Vietnam in Africa with large consumption of Vietnamese cashew andrice. He proposed that Cote d’Ivoirewill create conditions for Vietnamto directly export rice to the market, urging the negotiations for a number ofimportant bilateral deals.
Ambassador Dosso Adama asserted that there is room for bothsides to further promote their cooperation, vowing to work hard to make theties more fruitful. He added that his country is interested in importing moregoods from Vietnam.
Congratulated RwandaAmbassador Charles Kayonga on his new position, President Quang affirmed that Vietnam highly values the traditional friendshipwith African friends, including Rwanda,especially in health care, education and agriculture.
Ambassador Kayonga said he hopes Vietnamwill share with Rwandaits development experience, adding that his country welcomes Vietnamesebusinesses to invest in the country.
At a reception for Slovenian Ambassador Janez Premoze, theState leader underlined significance of partnership with Slovenia, expressing his pleasureat the bilateral trade ties.
The Ministry of Industry and Trade is forming a VietnamSubcommittee under the Vietnam-Slovenia Inter-Governmental Committee onEconomic Cooperation, he revealed, asking the two sides to hold the first sessionof the committee in the first half of 2017 to seek ways to bolster trade andinvestment affiliation.
President Quang also proposed that the two countries step upnegotiations for the double taxation avoidance agreement and an agreement onrecognising qualification and certificates of each other, while asking for Slovenia’s contributions to the signing of theVietnam-EU free trade agreement and the EU’s recognition of Vietnam’smarket economy.
Ambassador Janez Premoze stated that Slovenia is interested in cooperating with Vietnamin all fields and frameworks.-VNA
VNA
