Senior officials from Vietnamese and Dutch legislative bodies have agreed to step up the establishment of a Vietnam-Netherlands parliamentary group to enhance their mutual understanding and further tighten bilateral cooperative ties.

The consensus was reached during a meeting in the Hague on March 24 with the presence of National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Vice President of the Dutch House of Representatives’ standing committee Ard Van Der Steur and Vietnamese Ambassador to the host country Lai Cong Doan.

The two sides expressed their pleasure at the sound relationship between the two countries in all fields, which is expected to move forward in the future.

Vice Chairwoman Ngan noted that Vietnam will host the 132nd General Assembly of the Inter- Parliamentary Union (IPU) in March 2015. The presidents of the Dutch Senate and House of Representatives are hoped to be present at the event, at the invitation of NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung, she added.
Vietnam and the Netherlands set up diplomatic ties in April 1973.

In the intervening years, the Netherlands has been one of the leading EU countries to provide non-refundable aid for Vietnam in education, science-technology and environment.

It is now running 160 investment projects worth 6 billion USD in registered capital in the Southeast Asian country.

Two-way trade surged from 1.68 billion USD in 2009 to 3.2 billion USD in 2012.-VNA