Vietnam would like to set up comprehensive partnerships with Kazakhstan , Denmark and Hungary for the benefit of the people of each country and for the sake of peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

This is one of the objectives of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to the three countries from September 14-19. The visit also aims to strengthen friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between Vietnam and Kazakhstan, Denmark and Hungary, especially in the fields of economy, trade and investment.

Vietnam and Kazakhstan have exchanged visits by high-ranking delegations since 1992 when they began up their diplomatic relationship with the most noteworthy being the Kazakhstan visit by late Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in 1994 and the upcoming visit by PM Dung.

The two countries have set up an inter-governmental committee on economic cooperation, trade and science and technology.

Two-way trade has been gone up considerably since 2002, starting at 27 million USD in that year, rising to 46.14 million USD in 2005, then to 68.8 million USD in 2007 and to 96 million USD in 2008, of which figure, 23.3 million USD was in Vietnam’s exports to Kazakhstan and 72.9 million USD was in imports from the Central Asian country.

Vietnam is also pinning high hopes on doubling its trade with Denmark from the 2006’s figure of 220.3 million USD by 2010. Vietnam’s exports to Denmark are mainly garments and textiles, footwear, furniture, handicrafts, electric equipment, coffee and metallic products. Denmark’s investment in Vietnam is still modest at 350 million USD, with only just over 100 Dutch entrepreneurs operating in Vietnam, mostly in fields of industry, construction, agriculture, forestry and services.

However, Denmark is the EU’s second largest provider of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Vietnam with around 1 billion USD so far, mainly in poverty alleviation in remote and ethnic minority areas. Denmark also grants annually a non-refundable aid package of 60 million USD to Vietnam’s projects on industry, construction material, agriculture and rural development, environmental hygiene, natural resource protection, administration reforms, law, finance and business support.

Meanwhile, Hungary provides annually around 500,000 EUR (731,000 USD) in ODA for Vietnam. Last year, the European country increased its ODA pledge to 49.5 million USD. Vietnam and Hungary have now signed a series of agreements on double taxation avoidance, investment protection and encouragement, judicial support and cooperation on combating organised crime, as well as in the fields of economy, agriculture and development, science and technology, culture, education and training, tourism, broadcasting and customs.

In terms of traditional relations, Vietnam and Hungary are expected to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic ties next year. The two countries have now exchanged many visits by high-ranking delegations in order to increase their friendship and bilateral cooperation, especially on socio-economic issues./.