Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has expressed his wish to deepen the Vietnamese – Thai multi-faceted cooperation in an effective manner, benefiting both countries.

At a reception for the Thai Minister of Commerce Boonsong Teriyapirom in Hanoi on July 12, Dung said the two countries need to better tap their potential and strength for improvement of bilateral cooperation and development.

He suggested the two sides implement measures to effectively increase trade and investment, especially paying attention to cooperation in rice production and export, aimed at creating a cooperative mechanism in this field.

Teriyapirom said Thailand always attaches importance to further boosting trade and investment cooperation with Vietnam, and makes every effort to maintain the two-way annual trade growth of 20 percent.

He also pledged to encourage Thai businesses to enhance cooperation and investment in Vietnam, and create favourable conditions for Vietnamese partners to seek investment opportunities in Thailand.

Along with promoting cooperation in rice production and consumption in the coming time, Thailand is keen to further step up aquaculture cooperation with Vietnam.

Last year, two-way trade between Vietnam and Thailand hit 8.8 billion USD. In the first five months of this year, the figure was 3.8 billion USD, a year-on-year rise of 2.1 percent.-VNA