Vietnam - Italy: Comprehensive Cooperation

In recent years, the multifaceted friendship and cooperation relationship between the two countries and two peoples continues to grow. Two-way trade turnover reached US$1.802 billion in 2010. Specifically, Vietnam earned US$980.14 million from exports to Italy, representing a year on year increase of 21.8 percent, while it spent US$822.47 million on imports from the European nation, up 13.26 percent. Cooperation in other fields like education, culture and technology also leaps forward. These outcomes result from the determination and effort of the two countries’ governments, agencies and particularly business communities.

 

Mr Bui Ba Bong, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said: 2011 is an important year for both Vietnam and Italy, marking the success of the 11^th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the election of lawmaking National Assembly of Vietnam, the 65th anniversary of National Day; and the 150^th anniversary of Italian unification. In this context, the Vietnam - Italy Friendship Association and the Italian Embassy in Vietnam have mapped out a rich-content programme to enhance mutual understanding and the friendly relations of the two countries and the two peoples. The association will do its best to successfully carry out the proposed action plan and work closely with Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni and the Embassy to the successfully implement the "Italy - Vietnam Project" initiated by the Ambassador.

 

Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni said Vietnam and Italy will continue to develop three fields in the coming time, namely business, culture and cooperation. He said more and more Italian businesses have come to explore opportunities, do business and cooperate with Vietnam.

 

The Italian Embassy in Vietnam held a press conference to introduce operations of Italian development cooperation projects in Vietnam. Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni presented opportunities gained from a provision in the Italian Law on Development Cooperation, that is, investment for formation of Italian - Vietnamese business joint ventures. Recently, the Government of Italy has invested in a seafood joint venture in Ba Ria - Vung Tau province.

 

Ambassador Lorenzo Angeloni stressed that development cooperation projects focused priority on such areas as health, education, vocational training, water, environmental sanitation and trade. These projects are mainly executed in Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien - Hue and Quang Nam provinces and Da Nang City.

 

Besides, he also introduced a project aiming to facilitate the development of responsible and sustainable tourism in Vietnam. This project will be operated by an international travel company.

 

The Ambassador added that economic, trade and investment cooperation between Italy and Vietnam has grown in recent years. At present, the Italian Government is advancing 21 new projects with a total investment of 75 million euro which are expected to be concluded in 2 - 3 years. In addition, some projects are defined according to the framework of Joint Government Committee which met in December 2009 in Rome, Italy. Accordingly, the Italian Government funded 30 million euro and granted aid of 4.5 million euro in three years.