China-ASEAN Expo 2015 (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming official visit to China by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is expected to maintain the positive development trend in the bilateral relations.
After the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and the first session of the 14th National Assembly, Chinese leaders sent congratulatory messages to Vietnamese counterparts and confirmed China is willing to maintain strategic exchanges and deepen cooperation across fields to promote healthy and stable rapport with Vietnam.
At meetings, the Chinese side continually asserted that it places importance to the ties with Vietnam and is also ready to work the neighbor to manage and address maritime disputes and enhance bilateral collaboration in defense, external and judicial affairs.
Both countries agreed to take effective measures to boost two-way trade to 100 billion USD in 2017. China pledged to pay more attention to Vietnam’s trade deficit and gradually implement large-scale investment projects that would represent the bilateral relations.
The bilateral trade reached 66.6 billion USD in 2015, a year-on-year rise of 13.7 percent, of which Vietnam exported 17.1 billion USD worth of goods to China (up 14.8 percent) and imported 49.5 billion USD in commodities (up 13.3 percent).
In the first seven months of 2016, Vietnam’s exports reached 10.85 billion USD (up 14.93 percent) while its imports stood at 16.47 billion USD (down 3.42 percent).
In the first half of 2016, China ran 127 new investment projects in Vietnam with the total newly-registered and increased capital of 537.6 million USD.
As of July 2016, China (excluding Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau), secured 1,500 investment projects in Vietnam worth 10.86 billion USD, ranking ninth out of the 116 countries and territories investing in Vietnam.
China continued to take the lead in the number of tourists to Vietnam with nearly 1.5 million in the first seven months of 2016, accounting for over one quarter of international holidaymakers to Vietnam in the period.
Regarding the East Sea issue, Vietnamese and Chinese leaders reached important perceptions on settling satisfactorily disputes at sea on the basis of respecting mutual benefits and international law.
Vietnam and China have completed their joint survey of waters off the Gulf of Tonkin and kick-started a research cooperation project on a comparative study on Holocene-era sediments in the Red River Delta of Vietnam and the Chang Jiang River Delta of China.
The two sides have also conducted the eighth round of negotiations on maritime cooperation in less sensitive fields.
During his stay in China, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc is scheduled to attend the 13th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) and the 13th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit, following the theme “Building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, Forging an Even-Closer China-ASEAN Community of Common Destiny”.
The two events constitute an important mechanisms to boost friendship, trade and multi-sector cooperation between ASEAN member countries and China.-VNA
