Vietnam’s party chief Nong Duc Manh will visit Japan in April this year in order to boost bilateral friendship, comprehensive ties, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told Japanese Goodwill Ambassador to Vietnam Sugi Ryotaro on February 9.
“Party Chief Manh’s upcoming visit to Japan and Japanese Prince to Vietnam are aimed at discussing active measures to bring the bilateral relations to new heights,” Mr Dung noted.
“Manh’s visit will also be for the sakes of the two countries’ people and peace, stability and cooperation in the region,” Dung added.
Japan, which decided to halt ODA for Vietnam last year for PCI scandal, now said it will resume new aids for the communist state by April this year, Vietnamese state media said.
Vietnam and Japan signed the economic partnership agreement (EPA) in Tokyo Dec 25, under which, the two countries will exempt tax for 92 per cent of bilateral trade in the next 10 years, state media said.
This is the 10th free trade pact Japan has signed with Singapore, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Thailand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. For Vietnam, this is its first bilateral free trade agreement.
Vietnam has reported trade surplus of US$200 million with Japan out of the bilateral trade of US$14.2 billion in Jan-Oct last year. Vietnam exported US$7.2 billion of goods to Japan and imported US$7 billion of goods from the foreign country, the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment said.
Japan is the third biggest FDI investor in Vietnam with pledged US$5.1 billion during the period, behind Taiwan and Singapore, the ministry said. (chinhphu.vn)
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