Vietnam values ties with Cuba: Minister

Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamese Party, State and people always treasure the fraternal solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with Cuba, and want to expand collaboration in the fields of both sides’ strengths so as to benefit the development in each nation, Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha stressed on September 10.

At the 37th meeting of the Vietnam-Cuba Inter-Governmental Committee in Hanoi, Minister Ha further said the bilateral relations have been increasingly consolidated across politics, diplomacy, economy, culture, defence-security, and science-technology, adding the two sides have supported each other at multilateral forums, making contributions to increasing their prestige in the region and in the world.

Enhancing the exchange of high-level delegations in 2019 is a vivid illustration for their desire to further improve political trust as well as experience sharing in Party building and socio-economic development in each country, he underlined.

Ha expressed his delight at the great achievements attained by the Cuban Party, State and people over the past time, particularly positive results during the process of updating its economic model.

For his part, Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz said the meeting once again affirmed the sound trade ties between the two nations.

Both sides have worked to accelerate the implementation of the new trade deal reached during the Vietnam visit by President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz Canel last year, he said, believing the pact will contribute to promoting and diversifying two-way trade in the time ahead.

Cooperation between the two countries has been boosted in various sectors, especially agriculture, food processing and health care. They have organised an array of trade promotion events, and are preparing for the Havana International Fair 2019. Regarding tourism, Cuba saw a significant surge in the number of Vietnamese visitors in 2018.

The country is facing formidable economic challenges, particularly the US’s tightened trade embargo has affected the country’s development and local livelihood, he said, adding this has worsened the slow payment for Vietnamese businesses.

The Cuban Government affirms its determination to fulfill all payment obligations, and is thankful to relevant authorities in Vietnam for their trust and support for the American country to seek rational solutions to the problem, he said.

According to the Cuban minister, Vietnam is currently the second largest trade partner of Cuba in Asia, and among the top 20 trade partners of the country in the world. As Cuba is running a trade deficit with Vietnam, he expected that more Cuban products and services will have chances to hit the shelves in the Vietnamese market in the coming time. By that way, Cuba will have better foreign currency reserve to complete its payment duty.

Besides, he took the occasion to call for further Vietnamese investments to Cuba, saying the country wants to foster collaboration in finance and banking.

At the event, both sides agreed to carry out the evaluation on the implementation of the commitments at the 36th meeting, and results of the medium-term bilateral economic agenda during 2014-2019. Furthermore, they reached consensus on the cooperation content of the 37th meeting, identified main contents of the bilateral agenda during 2020-2025, and defined priorities in their economic cooperation together with practical measures to remove bottlenecks for trade and investment activities.-VNA