Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet who is leading a high-profile delegation to attend the 15th APEC summit in Sydney to boost a comprehensive cooperative ties with Australian and New Zealand and call on overseas Vietnamese to make greater contributions to building a prosperous country, state media reported.
In the framework of attending the APEC summit, President Triet held bilateral talks with Australian Prime Minister John Howard on September 9, reiterating that Vietnam always treasures all-round cooperation relations with Australia and proposing it to raise ODA loans for Vietnam and boosting the bilateral cooperation in trade, investment and education fields.
Triet also hailed Australia for successfully hosting the event that focused on burning global issues such as climate change, energy security and clean development, WTO’s Doha round and the global fight against terrorism, proposing APEC member countries to accelerate the regional economic integration, which becomes the ground to help WTO realize Bogor goals in liberalizing trade and investment with focus on more and greater efforts to be made by APEC in to boost human resource training and initiatives to finalize the targets.
Howard for his part highly spoke of boosting friendship and multilateral cooperation with Vietnam and pledged continued ODA loans for Vietnam. Before leaving Australia and the closing ceremony of the APEC, President Triet conveyed the sincere thanks to the government of Australia for creating favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese, appealing them to boost great unity by removing prejudices to make greater contributions to building and developing an industrialized nation.
Triet highlighted that Party and State always appreciate contributions by overseas Vietnamese and pledge to create more favorable conditions for them to come home and do business.
Vietnam and Australia signed four economic agreements including a US$200 million deal to building trade centers, offices and urban areas between the Civil Engineering Construction Corporation 5 and the Country State Group in Ho Chi Minh City and northern Ha Tay province and southern Long An province, a US$60-million contract between state-owned Vietnam Construction Import-Export Corporation (Vinaconex) and WK Marble & Granite Pty Ltd and two others on developing duty-free services sector and a memorandum of understanding on seeking investment opportunities.
President Triet has become the first head of the State of Vietnam to pay visit to New Zealand at invitation of New Zealand Governor-General AnaNd Satyanand and Prime Minister Helen Clark since the two countries established the diplomatic ties 32 years ago.
Accompanying Triet are Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, Director of the Presidential Office Nguyen Van Chien, Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Vuong Hai Nam, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Le Danh Vinh, Assistant to State President Do Xuan Dong and Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hoang Van Dung.
President Triet’s visit to New Zealand this time is aimed to boost all-round cooperative ties, particularly in fields of trade, investment, education based on tapping the two countries’ potentials.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and New Zealand is soaring. In 2005 it estimated at US$US$166.2 million, to US$198 million in 2006 and roughly US$100 million in the first five months of this year. New Zealand imported 30 per cent of Vietnam’s footwear, 18 per cent of interior furniture, and other commodities such ceramic, apparel and cashew nuts.
As the July-end, New Zealand invested into 13 FDI projects valued at US$35 million, ranking 42nd among 74 countries and territories investing in the Asean country.
The oceanic country started providing non-refundable aids for Vietnam in 1994. In the fiscal year of 2006-2007, the foreign country granted Vietnam NZUS$6.7 million for human resource development, rural and agricultural sectors, healthcare and state governance.
Two sides signed many cooperation agreements in the fields of trade, investment, aviation. (Local sources)
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