Vietnam, Czech to Open Hanoi-Prague Direct Air Route

2:31:34 PM | 3/1/2006

Vietnam and the Czech Republic plan to open the first direct air-route between Hanoi and Prague in the coming time, State media said in Hanoi February 27.

The air route will boost bilateral cooperative and economic ties between the two countries, the Czech Parliament Speaker, Lubomir Zaoralek said at the meeting with the chairman of the Hanoi’s People’s Committee, Nguyen Quoc Trieu.

Lubomir Zaoralek added that the Czech Republic will continue to provide Vietnam with official development assistance (ODA) which will be used for health care for the handicapped, seeking clean water sources and forestation in localities nationwide.

Two-way trade between the countries was US$103.2 million in 2004, of which Vietnam exported US$81.6 million to the Czech Republic and imported US$21.6 million from the foreign country. However, in 2005 it fell to US$57 million, Vietnam exported US$42 million of goods to the foreign market and imported around 15 million from it.

Currently, 35,000 Vietnamese people are living and working in the Czech Republic. The Czech Parliament has approved a project to provide healthcare assistance for the overseas Vietnamese community there.

In a related development, a Czech company Skoda Praha said it will build a 1,000MW thermal power plant in Vietnam with total investment of US$503 million which is expected to be operational by 2010.

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