Vietnam and the Philippines have a long-standing partnership with steady progress in friendship, mutual trust and goodwill as evidenced by the successful visits from leaders of the two countries.

Notably President Rodrigo Duterte had many official visits to Vietnam from 2016 to 2018 and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited the Philippines in 2017. The Philippines is currently the fifth largest trading partner of Vietnam in the ASEAN market with bilateral trade in 2018 reaching over $4.7 billion.

More and more Philippine companies are investing in and seeking opportunities to expand their businesses in Vietnam. By the end of June 2019, the Philippines had 77 investment projects in Vietnam with total registered capital of nearly $3.3 billion, while Vietnam had 2 investment projects in the Philippines in advertising service and software development.

The cooperation between the two countries has not only been limited to politics, security - defense and economy. Cooperative efforts on education, culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges have also been constantly promoted.

VNA