The nine-day trip by Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will prove Vietnam’s external policy of attaching great importance to developing its relations with other ASEAN countries, according to an interview given by Dung to local reporters after his trip.
The August 8-16 journey was the first trip abroad by Prime Minister Dung since he retook the office, and aimed to boost cooperation in economics, trade, and investment as well as coordination in regional issues of common concern.
During the visit, Vietnam signed seven governmental-level agreements including the 2007-2010 Action Plan with the Philippines, memorandum of understandings (MoUs) on cultural cooperation with Indonesia and the Philippines, another MoU with Indonesia on cooperation in anti-corruption, an agreement on cooperation in trade promotion with the Philippines, a double tax avoidance agreement with Brunei, and a MoU with this country on sports cooperation.
Besides, Vietnamese firms accompanying the Prime Minister also inked a series of deals with foreign partners on cooperation in oil and gas, credit, tourism, construction, and urban development.
The Vietnamese leader also met with leading enterprises of Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar and Brunei and witnessed many contracts worth up to billions of US dollars in total.
According to Dung, Vietnam and Indonesia will continue with the implementation of the Joint Statement on the Framework of Friendship and Comprehensive Cooperation for the 21st Century. The leaders of the two nations vowed to bring Vietnam-Indonesia relations to a new height.
Vietnam and the Philippines will focus on fully implementing the Action Plan signed for the new period to boost cooperation in politics, security, defense, economics, trade, forestry and aquaculture, tourism, healthcare, culture and education, and science and technology.
Vietnam and Singapore will continue carrying out their Joint Statement on the Comprehensive Cooperation Framework for the 21st Century as well as a framework agreement on linking the two economies. They will also shortly set up a joint steering committee to accelerate the implementation of Singaporean-invested projects in Vietnam.
Regarding the linking of their economies, Vietnam and Singapore committed to expand the cooperative fields from six to eight. They will include port and warehouse and urban infrastructure development, besides finance, investment, trade and service, transport, post, telecom and information and technology, and education and training.
Singapore also pledged to help Vietnam build training centers for Vietnamese English teachers.
Vietnam and Myanmar agreed to enhance cooperation in economics, trade, agriculture, forestry & fishery, oil & gas exploitation, healthcare, and telecom. They vowed to increase the two-way trade to US$100 million in 2008 from US$72 million in 2006.
Myanmar hoped to lure Vietnamese investment into its agriculture, forestry, hydropower and oil & gas. The Vietnam National Oil & Gas Group signed with Myanmar Energy Ministry a memorandum of understanding to exploit oil and gas in Myanmar in the future.
Meanwhile, the cooperation focus between Vietnam and Brunei in the coming time is trade, investment, oil and gas, sport, education, and labor. (Website of CPV)
Vietnamese
