Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will visit Russia, the Czech Republic and Poland from September 9-15 to boost cooperative ties, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said.
PM Dung will conduct his tour at the invitations of Russian PM Mikhail Fradkow, Czech PM Mirek Topolanek and Polish PM Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the ministry’s Department of Press and Information stated August 31 at a Hanoi press briefing.
The trip by the Vietnamese government leader aims at enhancing the strategic partnership relation with Russia, the multifaceted friendship cooperation with the two republic nations of Czech and Poland, particularly focusing on ties of economy-trade, science-technology, investment, education-training, and tourism.
Vietnam and Russia is each other’s strategic and traditional partner though the results of the bilateral economic and trade relations have not met their potentials and expectations. Vietnam earned US$413.2 million from exports to Russia in 2006 and spent US$455.7 million importing Russian goods.
Vietnam and Poland established diplomatic ties in 1950. The bilateral trade reached US$220 million in 2004, a 23 per cent against 2003. Of the figure, Vietnam exported to Poland US$187 million of goods, mainly rice, coffee, tea, footwear, garments and textiles, and imported Polish machinery, equipment, powdered milk, and medicine. As of the end of 2006, Poland had seven investment projects in Vietnam worth US$35 million.
Vietnam and Czech set up diplomatic ties early 1993 just after Czechoslovakia split. The Czech Republic is a loyal member of the donor club and is the only East European donor in official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam. In 2006 alone, the Czech Republic committed US$1.2 million in ODA for environmental protection, agriculture, labor and the modernization of industrial infrastructure in Vietnam. (Website of CPV, Vietnam Panorama)
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