Hanoi, (VNA) – Sri Lankan Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe and his spouse began an official visit to Vietnam on April16 at the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
The visit, which will last until April 19, aims atencouraging bilateral cooperation in fields of Sri Lanka’s interest, such astrade, investment, telecommunications, aquaculture and seafood processing,machinery manufacturing and construction materials.
The two sides will also take the occasion to discussinternational and regional issues of mutual concern.
Vietnam and Sri Lanka established diplomatic relations in 1970.
The Sri LankanEmbassy was opened in Hanoi in 2003, while Vietnam reopened its embassy inColombo in 2011.
In recent years, trade between the two countries has grownsignificantly, reaching 192 million USD in 2015 and 325.6 million USD in 2016.
The two sides established a sub-committee on joint trade within theframework of their joint committee in August, 2014, and agreed on the earlynegotiation and signing of a preferential trade agreement, with the aim ofaccelerating commercial activities.
By the end of 2016, Sri Lanka had 15 operating investment projectscapitalized at 83.77 million USD in Vietnam, ranking 48th among foreigninvestors. -VNA
