Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka started an official working visit to Vietnam today to boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation, and increase effectiveness of cooperation of the two countries in international forums.
The visit, at the invitation of Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung, will last until November 29. This is the first visit by the head of Sri Lankan government and the first high-level visit between the two countries in the past thirty years.
Ratnasiri Wickremanayaka will meet with Vietnamese leaders to discuss concrete measures for multi-faceted cooperation between the two traditional friends.
Vietnam and Sri Lanka established consul ties in 1964 and diplomatic ties in 1970. The two countries are implementing eight cooperative agreements on culture, trade, posts, aviation transport, economics, science and technology, tourism, double taxation avoidance, and visa exemption for diplomats. They have also closely cooperated in international forums such as the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, and South-South Cooperation.
However, two-way trade remained modest, reaching US$30.3 million last year and US$19.6 million in the first half of this year. Vietnam mainly exports precious stone, cloth, rubber, seafood, handicraft and fine arts, and wooden products, and imports cattle feed, footwear, garment and textile materials, plastic, and chemical substance.
Sri Lanka is now carrying out a foreign policy towards the East attaching importance to cooperation with countries in the Southeast Asian region. It is actively lobbying for becoming a dialogue participant with ASEAN and a member of APEC.
People’s Army, The People
Vietnamese
