VietNamNet Bridge – Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan met with Belgian Crown Prince Philippe in Hanoi on Mar. 12 during his six-day official visit to Vietnam, starting on from Mar. 11.

Vice President Doan said that Vietnam always attaches importance to boosting friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Belgium, an important partner of Vietnam in the European Union.

She described the visit as an important milestone in the development of the fine relations between the two countries, especially when Vietnam and Belgium approach the celebration of the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties in 2013.

Crown Prince Philippe expressed his impression of Vietnam’s achievements in the national renewal process, which helped improve the country’s position in the region and the world.

The two sides expressed pleasure at the active development of their relations in all fields, particularly in politics, diplomacy, economics, cooperative development, education and training.

The two sides agreed to continue exchanging delegations at all levels, while cooperating at international and multilateral forums, especially at the UN and under the framework of ASEM and ASEAN-EU.

They also agreed to continue boosting cooperation between regions and localities of the two countries and creating favourable conditions for their enterprises to seek business and investment opportunities.

They highly appreciated the implementation of cooperative projects and plan to continue to coordinate the implementation of projects under the Vietnam-Belgium Cooperation Programme in 2011-2015, focusing on education and training, water resource management, irrigation and waste treatment.

Vice President Doan thanked the Belgium Government and people for their assistance, especially the increase of development assistance from 35 million EUR to 60 million EUR for the 2011-2015 period. She asked Belgium to continue considering Vietnam as a priority in cooperative development policy with a focus on human resource training combined with scientific and technological development and applications.

Crown Prince Philippe informed the host that accompanying him are many Belgium businessmen and deans of universities, showing that the Belgian government, regions and community are aiming to boost cooperation with Vietnam. He affirmed a commitment to continued support and cooperation between Belgium and Vietnam in future.

After the meeting, Vice President Doan and Crown Prince Philippe witnessed the signing of four cooperative documents between the two countries.
They included the protocol on the amendment to the agreement on avoidance of double taxation and memorandums of understanding between the finance ministries and the science and technology ministries and the Belgian Government’s letter on its provision of an additional 3 million Euro to the 63 million Euro credit meant for the VNREDSat-1B project.

The same day, Crown Prince Philippe and the business delegation visited Hanoi National University. The delegation brings about 300 businessmen from more than 100 enterprises specialising in management of water and waste, transport, logistics, space technology and healthcare.

Vietnamese leaders welcome Belgian Crown Prince

President Truong Tan Sang on Mar. 12 met visiting Belgian Crown Prince Philippe, welcoming the prince’s coming back after nine years.

President Sang asked the two sides to continue exchanging delegations at high levels in order to cement the relationship.

He thanked the Belgian Government for putting Vietnam high on its list of official development assistance (ODA) recipients, and for its supports of Vietnam at international and regional forums.

Sang spoke highly of Belgium’s support towards Vietnam in strengthening its comprehensive relationship with the European Union, particularly in the removal of the anti-dumping tax on Vietnamese leather-capped shoes imported by the European Union market.

For his part Crown Prince Philippe affirmed Belgium would support Vietnam in information technology, transport infrastructure, environmental protection and health care.

He also expressed hope that Vietnam would be a bridge for Belgian enterprises to other Southeast Asian countries.

The same day, Belgian Crown Prince Philippe was also received by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who affirmed that Vietnam would consistently consolidate the partnership with Belgium in every field.

He said the two Governments should create favourable conditions for enterprises from both sides to meet and learn investment opportunities.

He affirmed Vietnam would effectively use Belgium’s ODA funding in meeting socio-economic development targets.

The PM was pleased to see the economics and commerce ties between Vietnam and Belgium had witnessed a strong progress with the two-way trade turnover of 1.6 billion USD last year.

On his part, Crown Prince Philippe expressed his wish to boost cooperation with Vietnam on the fields of Belgium’s strengths, including green technology, renewable energies, and space sciences among others.

VietNamNet/VNA