This is the theme of the 46th anniversary of cooperation between Vietnam and Sweden, which recently took place in Hanoi. The meeting was held by the Embassy of Sweden in Vietnam in collaboration with the Ministry of Planning and Investment. The ceremony was an opportunity for the two countries to look back at memorable cooperation landmarks since 1967, which marked the first humanitarian assistance of Sweden to Vietnam.
Reviewing the good cooperation results between Vietnam and Sweden over 46 years, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen The Phuong said that in the context of the current world economy riddled with fluctuations, the two countries need new ways to cooperate in accordance with the orientation and conditions of each country. On the basis of this long-standing cooperation relation, Vietnam and Sweden will also continue to maintain and further develop the traditional friendship and cooperation to fully tap the potential and existing strengths of each party and foster cooperation relation between Vietnam and Sweden.
According to Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Camilla Mellander, most of the successful cooperation programmes bringing benefits to the government and people of Vietnam include the work of land management, anti-corruption, energy, poverty eradication, etc. According to the statistics summarized in the period of 2003 - 2009, more than 200,000 people in Quang Tri, Ha Giang and Yen Bai benefited from the “Sharing” project. Besides, Sweden is also known as the second largest donor of ODA in Vietnam in the 1970s, the first one in the 1980s and the fourth one in the 1990s. In recent years, Sweden has supported more than US$3.4 billion in aid to Vietnam in the important areas of cooperation such as health care, poverty alleviation, judiciary, journalism, land management, anti-corruption, energy, etc. The comprehensive and diverse development cooperation has indeed brought greater efficiency in the process of reforming and opening up the economy as well as law issues in Vietnam.
Former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, Dr Le Dang Doanh shared that Sweden is early known as a leading ODA donor to Vietnam. Living proofs for this claim are the economic projects such as Bai Bang Paper Mill plant, welfare facilities such as Central Hospital for Children, Vietnam - Sweden hospital (Uong Bi, Quang Ninh). In the time of his working and long after that, Dr Le Dang Doanh has also helped share the support of experts from Sweden who have been working step by step to help Vietnam further improve policy system and law as well as remove difficulties and obstacles in the process of international economic integration.
Showing her desire to further raise the level of cooperation between Sweden and Vietnam in the new period, Ms Elsa Hastad, Director of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA ) said that Sweden has been giving timely and suitable assistance for Vietnam including adjustments to promote the development of Vietnam. Both sides are always listening and exchanging to better understand each other.
Vietnam is known as one of the few countries in the world which in the future will be subject to many consequences of the climate change. Therefore, to have nations and international organizations investing in models to prevent deterioration of the climate change is critical. At the celebration, Ms Dang Huong Giang, Director of the Action for the City (Vietnam) also cordially shared her thoughts on this topic. According to Ms Giang, currently there are two projects promoting sustainable urban development and cooperation on response to climate change jointly conducted by Action for the City and Swedish partners which have contributed to making profit and creating employment for local people.
According to Dr Le Dang Doanh, most of the projects between Vietnam and Sweden have achieved a very high success rate, which is the premise for the two parties to forge a equal, sustainable and more extensive partnership.
Vietnamese
