Day: June 25, 2021

The upcoming visit to Vietnam by General Secretary of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and President of Laos Thongloun Sisoulith is expected to contribute to deepening close and trusting relations between leaders of the two Parties and countries in the time ahead.

Thongloun Sisoulith, his wife and a high-ranking delegation of the Lao Party and State will pay an official visit to Vietnam from June 28-29, at the invitation of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong and President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and their spouses.

This is the first overseas trip by Thongloun Sisoulith in his capacity as Lao Party General Secretary and President for the 2021-2026 tenure, helping to affirm the two countries’ foreign policies of attaching great importance to preserving and continuously developing the great friendship, special solidarity and comprehensive cooperation.

The relationship has been consolidated and developed intensively, extensively, practically and effectively in different spheres, with political ties playing the core role.

The two sides have coordinated to organise visits, meetings and exchange programmes between leaders of the two Parties and countries, while signing many important cooperative agreements between the two Parties and governments.

Party commissions, ministries, agencies and localities of Vietnam and Laos have also signed and actively implemented cooperative agreements and programmes, exchanged visits and shared experience.

Joint efforts have been made to raise public awareness of the bilateral ties, especially among young people, organise major events, and build and upgrade historical relic sites featuring the relations.

Despite the complex development of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and early 2021, the two countries maintained a number of visits and meetings in suitable forms.

Cooperation in national defence and security, and external affairs has also been seen as an important pillar of the bilateral ties.

The two sides have worked together to realise protocols and annual cooperative plans between the ministries of national defence and public security, build a common border of stability and sustainable development, complete a project to increase and upgrade border markers, and reach a protocol on Vietnam – Laos borderline and border markers and an agreement on land border and border gates management regulations between the Vietnamese and Lao governments.

Competent forces of the two countries have coordinated in the fight against cross-border crime, especially drug smuggling, the search and repatriation of remains of Vietnamese volunteers and experts who laid down their lives in the neighbouring country, and the COVID-19 combat.

At the same time, the two countries have closely and effectively coordinated at multilateral forums.

The political ties have created a firm foundation for the bilateral economic cooperation. Vietnam has invested 4.22 billion USD in 413 projects in Laos so far, up about 30 percent from 2010, with about 2.2 billion USD disbursed.

During the 2016-2020 period, two-way trade revenue stood at around 4.8 billion USD.

Attention has also been paid to cooperation in personnel training in transport and construction, energy industry; education and training; and people-to-people diplomacy.

The Vietnam visit by the top leader of Laos will offer an opportunity for the two sides to further exchange experience in development, and seek measures to push ahead with the implementation of high-level agreements between the two Parties and countries in 2021 and the years to come./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Vietnamese Embassy in the Republic of Korea, TPS Farmers and Vinaka companies signed an agreement in the southern city of Kwangyang on June 25 to boost the import and distribution of Vietnamese farm produce in the country.

The Vietnamese community in the RoK have rising demand for agro-aquatic products and processed food from Vietnam, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. At the same time, Vietnam’s cuisine is becoming popular in the RoK with more than 4,000 Vietnamese restaurants nationwide, according to a survey of Chosun cuisine magazine in 2019.

With the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department of Asian – African Markets, the embassy’s Trade Office actively worked with Vietnamese exporters and importers to study demand and suggest building a regular information sharing mechanism to promptly tackle difficulties.

As a result, they agreed to popularise Vietnamese farm produce trademarks in the RoK, and pledged to import farm produce and processed food worth 5.2 million USD between now and 2022, including fresh and frozen fruits, vegetables, beverages, and spices which will be distributed via Asian Mart chain and Korean distribution outlets.

The Vietnamese importers are also investing in logistics, cold storage and e-commerce to gradually navigate major supermarket chains such as Lotte, Emart, Home Plus and online retailers like Coupang and Gmarket.

The Trade Office and the Department of Asian – African Markets also vowed support to trade promotion activities in the RoK to increase export value.

At a conference held on June 18, TPS Farmers and Vinaka were also introduced to Hai Duong province’s prestigious lychee exporters. They are planning to bring Vietnamese frozen lychees to the RoK./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

Vietnamese and Chinese Party officials, scholars and experts gathered at an online symposium on June 25 to discuss the relationship of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Communist Party of China in the past, present and future.

Speaking at the event, Nguyen Ho Hai, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, stressed that the Vietnam-China friendship, founded by the countries’ leaders Ho Chi Minh and Mao Zedong, is a shared treasure of both sides and needs to be further promoted.

He noted that the Parties and States of Vietnam and China have given each other support during the reform and opening and socialism building in each country for peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

HCM City Party organisation, administration and people treasure the valuable support from international friends, foreign partners, including those from China, to the city’s efforts to become a socio-economic, trade, science-technology hub of the country and an attractive destination of the region and the world over, the official said.

He held that the symposium creates a good chance for experts and scholars to review the traditional friendship, comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries and draw lessons for each side, thus further promoting the traditional friendship between the two Parties as well as the comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries.

For his part, Liu Xiaoming, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that the shared path to socialism has brought Vietnam and China closer together to become “good neighbours, good friends, good comrades, and good partners”.

Vietnam and China are among the few socialist countries having Communist Party as the ruling party, which is the choice of not only the history but also the peoples of both sides to represent their interest and their pursuit of happiness.

It is for the interest of both sides to preserve the vitality of the two Parties, which is a motivation for the completion of socio-economic development and the building of strong countries with rich peoples, he said.

The official noted that over the years, under the leadership of the two Parties and efforts of peoples of both sides, China and Vietnam have recorded considerable achievements, while promoting and deepening bilateral relations, especially in economy, trade, investment and COVID-19 prevention and control.

The function is expected to contribute to the growth of the communist movement in the world as well as the acceleration of partnership between political parties of both countries and the reinforcement of traditional ties between China and Vietnam, he added.

Addressing the event, Chinese Consul-General in HCM City Wu Jun said that the history and reality have proved that the persistent pursuit of socialism and the safeguard of security of the political systems in both countries are the most fundamental joint strategic interest of both sides. The staunch leadership of the Communist Party and the superiority of the socialism system are the basic factors for both countries to overcome all the difficulties, he affirmed.

The official stressed that the Party and Government of China are willing to work with Vietnam to promote the traditional friendship, comprehensive partnership between the two countries in the new era, thus building a community with shared destiny and creating new motivation for the growth of bilateral ties as well as the socialism building in both countries.

Participants at the event highlighted the theory of communism, and focused on the relations between the Communist Party of Vietnam and Communist Party of China in the past and the future, among others./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency