Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung arrived in Nay Pyi Taw on July 24, beginning his three-day official visit to Myanmar.

The visit, made at the invitation of Speaker of the Myanmar Parliament and its Upper House Khin Aung Myint, aims to continue affirming Vietnam’s consistent policy of attaching importance to strengthening friendship and all-round cooperation between the two states and parliaments.

Following a welcome ceremony, Chairman Hung held talks with his Myanmar counterpart, during which he expressed his delight at the developing ties between the two parliaments recently, especially after the latter’s Vietnam visit last year.

He suggested the two sides increase the exchange of delegations and the sharing of experience in legislation, supervision and other issues relating to NA operations.

He thanked the Myanmar parliament for its support for Vietnam’s proposal to host the 132nd General Assembly of the International Parliamentary Union (IPU-132) in 2015 and invited Speaker Khin Aung Myint to join the important event.

For his part, the Myanmar Speaker spoke highly of Vietnam’s socio-economic development achievement over the past years, suggesting the two sides further cooperation in all fields, thus making the bilateral ties more practical and effective in the future.

Concurring with Chairman Hung’s proposal to strengthen cooperation between the two parliaments in legislation, supervision and parliamentary diplomacy, Khin Aung Myint held that the newly-established Vietnam-Myanmar and Myanmar-Vietnam Friendship Parliamentary Groups should promote their role of bridging this relation.

During the talks, the top legislators of Vietnam and Myanmar signed a cooperation agreement between the two parliaments.

During a meeting with Speaker of Myanmar’s Lower House Thura U Shwe Mann on the same day, Chairman Hung congratulated Myanmar on successfully electing its legislative body and officially becoming a full member of the Asia Inter-Parliament Assembly (AIPA).

He said he believes that with the active and positive contributions of the Myanmar Parliament, AIPA will be stronger with more initiatives that contribute to successfully realise the goal of building a strong and united ASEAN Community by 2015.

The Vietnamese NA is willing to work with the Parliament of Myanmar in promoting and supervising the implementation of agreements reached by the two governments so that they will bring practical and effective results to both sides, he stressed.

Describing Chairman Hung’s visit as a vivid manifestation of the sound development of the two parliaments’ ties in recent years, Thura U Shwe Mann said the cooperation agreement signed by the two legislatures for the time, is an important legal framework for both sides to carry out their bilateral cooperation activities.

Also on July 24, the Vietnamese NA Chairman paid a courtesy call to Myanmar President U Thein Sein.

Praising the achievements that Myanmar has gained in its national construction and development over the past years, Chairman Hung expressed his belief that the parliament, government and people of Myanmar will continue developing the country in a sustainable and stable manner, contributing to peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Mentioning positive changes in the tradition friendship and multifaceted cooperation between the two countries recently, he suggested the two sides increase trade promotion activities in an effort to raise two-way trade to at least 500 million USD in the next few years.

He also voiced his wish that the Myanmar government will create more favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses so that they can get licences for their projects in the country in the fields of telecommunications, shipbuilding, mining and mineral processing, finance and banking, agriculture and seafood.

In reply, Vietnam will facilitate Myanmar businesses’ activities to invest in the country, he added.

President U Thein Sein affirmed that his country always attaches importance to and wants to further develop multifaceted cooperation with Vietnam .

He said both sides should actively realise their reached agreements and make the full use of the existing mechanisms in order to make all-round ties between the two countries practical and effective as expected by their high-ranking leaders.

He spoke highly of good cooperation between the two parliaments, suggesting that the two sides further strengthen their cooperation activities, thus promoting people-to-people diplomacy and enhancing mutual understanding between the two nations.

In the evening of the same day, Chairman Hung and his entourage joined a banquet hosted by the Speaker of the Myanmar Parliament and its Upper House Khin Aung Myint.-VNA