The delegationwas welcomed at the Noi Bai International Airport by Vice Chairman of the NA’sCommittee for Foreign Affairs Le Anh Tuan and Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam Keijo Norvanto, among others.
This is thefirst visit to a country outside Europe by Jussi Halla-aho since he took officeand he is visiting only Vietnam this time, showing Vietnam's special position inFinland's foreign policy, as well as the good friendship between the two legislatures.
The visitalso aims to mark the 50th founding anniversary of the two countries’diplomatic relations (1973 - 2023).
The visitis expected to help strengthen the cooperative relations between the twocountries in various areas, Don Tuan Phong, Vice Chairman of the NA’sCommittee for Foreign Affairs, spoke to the media ahead of the visit.
Accordingto the official, over the past 51 years, the traditional friendship andmultifaceted cooperation between Vietnam and Finland have been maintained anddeveloped well. Finland always gives Vietnam much attention and support.
Finland hascontinuously provided non-refundable aid to Vietnam since the two countriesestablished diplomatic relations. Economic-trade-investment cooperation is atop priority in their relations.
Two-way tradehas continuously increased, reaching nearly 380 million USD in 2023. However,it is still a modest number, especially in the context of the EU-Vietnam FreeTrade Agreement (EVFTA) taking effect in 2020.
Regardinginvestment, Finland currently ranks 58th out of 140 countries and territoriesinvesting in Vietnam with35 valid projects worth over 47 million USD, which also remains modest ratecompared to Finland's economic potential and strengths, Phong said.
Therefore,Phong said, through this visit, leaders of the two countries will discussmeasures to further strengthen economic, trade, and investment cooperation,particularly how to raise trade turnover, increase Finnish investment inVietnam, and attract more Finnish businesses to Vietnam, especially in fieldswhere the European country has strengths and Vietnam has demand like hightechnology, digital transformation, education-training, and componentproduction.
The officialinformed that the top legislators of Vietnam and Finland are scheduled to discuss measuresto strengthen cooperation between the two legislatures, especially inexchanging experience in legislation and supreme supervision, and deciding onimportant national issues./.