Top Finnish legislator begins official visit to Vietnam

Speaker of the Parliament of Finland Jussi Halla-aho and a high-ranking delegation of the Finnish Parliament arrived in Hanoi at noon on March 24, beginning a three-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.
Top Finnish legislator begins official visit to Vietnam ảnh 1Vice Chairman of the NA’s Committee for Foreign Affairs Le Anh Tuan (L) welcomes Speaker of the Parliament of Finland Jussi Halla-aho at the Noi Bai International Airport. (Photo: VNA) 
Hanoi (VNA) - Speaker of theParliament of Finland Jussi Halla-aho and a high-ranking delegation ofthe Finnish Parliament arrived in Hanoi at noon on March 24, beginning athree-day official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of National Assembly (NA) ChairmanVuong Dinh Hue.

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./.
VNA

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