President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez and his spouse concluded their three-day official friendship visit to Vietnam on November 10 at the invitation of the President and Prime Minister of Vietnam.

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Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong (R) bestows a Ho Chi Minh Order upon President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez in recognition of his contributions to the Vietnam-Cuba friendship and cooperation

During the visit, the Cuban leader held talks with General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and President Nguyen Phu Trong. 

Under the witness of the two leaders, Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung, representing the Vietnamese Government, and Vice President of the Cuban Council of Ministers Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, on behalf of the Cuban Government, signed a new trade agreement and a protocol on capital disbursement and financial management of cooperation in rice production development for 2019-2023.

The Cuban leader also met with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, and Secretary of the Party Committee of Ho Chi Minh City Nguyen Thien Nhan, as well as representatives of the Vietnam-Cuba Friendship Association. He also attended a Vietnam-Cuba business workshop.

Earlier, the Cuban leader, his spouse and the Cuban delegation laid a wreath at the Monument of Heroic Martyrs and paid tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Hanoi.

He also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels historical relic site and the Saigon Hi-Tech Park in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the meetings, the two sides briefed each other on the situation in their respective countries and discussed orientations and measures to deepen the special relationship between the two nations in an effective and practical manner, while discussing a number of regional and international issues of mutual concern.

The two sides applauded the growth of the bilateral comprehensive cooperation, including increasingly trustworthy political ties through the regular exchange of delegations and experiences.

Cooperation mechanisms between the Vietnamese and Cuban Governments, ministries, and sectors have been maintained and become more and more effective. Relations between the two parties, parliaments, and peoples have also been enhanced, they noted.

The two sides pledged to maintain close and all-round cooperation during their processes of national construction and development. They promised to make every effort to intensify and tighten their exemplary fraternity, traditional friendship, comprehensive cooperation, and faithful solidarity.

The two sides discussed a wide range of measures to foster economic, trade, and investment partnerships in a result-oriented and practical manner. They also agreed to strength cooperative ties in defence, security, external relations, agriculture, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, healthcare, education, and science-technology, and people-to-people exchanges.

They agreed to direct ministries and sectors to actively promote the implementation of the bilateral trade cooperation agreement, seek ways to facilitate businesses’ access to each other’s markets, and strive to raise trade to 500 million USD by 2022.

On behalf of the Vietnamese State, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong bestowed a Ho Chi Minh Order upon the Cuban leader in recognition of his contributions to the Vietnam-Cuba friendship and cooperation.

HCM City looks to boost trade-investment ties with Cuba

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Participants of the meeting in a group photo with Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan  and President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez who stand in the 4th and 5th places from right, respectively 


Ho Chi Minh City is ready to set up a joint working group with Cuba to fuel up bilateral trade and investment, said Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Nhan made the statement during a meeting with President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez on November 10.

Welcoming the Cuban leader’s trip to Vietnam’s southern largest economic hub, Nhan stressed that HCM City has been honoured to receive many delegations of high-ranking Cuban leaders.

The city has been actively involved in the exchange of working delegations with Cuba in a bid to develop bilateral collaboration, particularly in investment, trade, and tourism, he noted. 

Nhan unveiled that local leaders have directed relevant departments and agencies to study measures to step up its trade and investment ties with Cuba for 2018 – 2019.   

HCM City wants to develop a long-term strong partnership with Cuba and is willing to work as an important bridge in realising pilot cooperation models between Vietnam and Cuba, he affirmed.

Nhan suggested Cuban leaders create more favourable conditions for Vietnamese firms, including those from HCM City, to invest and operate in the country.   

For his part, Miguel Diaz-Canel expressed his impression about great socio-economic achievements Vietnam and HCM City have obtained recently. He said Cuba is learning from HCM City’s experiences in building a high-tech park and attracting foreign investment to serve its national development process.

Cuba is willing to cooperate with Vietnam in its strong sectors like medicine and health, and wants to continue receiving assistance from the Southeast Asian country in agricultural development, he said.

Earlier the same day, the Cuban leader visited HCM City’s Cu Chi Tunnels and Saigon Hi-tech Park.

Cuba wants to learn Vietnam’s experiences in developing hi-tech parks

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President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez and his entourage visited the Saigon Hi-Tech Park of Ho Chi Minh City on November 10 


President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez and his entourage visited the Saigon Hi-Tech Park of Ho Chi Minh City on November 10 as part of their official friendship visit to Vietnam.

Welcoming the delegation, head of the Management Board of the Saigon Hi-Tech Park Le Hoai Quoc said that after 16 years of operation, the park has granted investment licences to 148 projects, including 93 domestic and 55 foreign-invested ones.

Total hi-tech production of the park has reached nearly 45 billion USD with the rising trend. In 2018, the figure is estimated to hit 14 billion USD and is expected to exceed 20 billion USD in 2020.

Quoc said that the park has started its second phase to match the city’s development orientations to become a creative city by fusing on completing a renovation ecosystem.

Enterprises planning to invest in the park must be committed to investing in research and development and implement a roadmap to localise the supply chain, said Quoc.

Miguel Diaz-Canel inquired about issues related to the investment model of the park, legal matters in construction and investment in the park as well as criteria for a hi-tech enterprise.

He said that Cuba has approved a policy to develop high-tech parks but the country has yet to build a sufficient legal foundation in the field. Meanwhile, Cuba has yet to give specific standards for a hi-tech firm or product, especially in its strong biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, he added.

The Cuban leader said that Cuba sees Vietnam as a model to follow and learn experiences from, expressing his belief to that Vietnam, with strong political trust and traditional friendship with Cuba, is a trustworthy destination for Cuba to study.

He suggested that in the coming time, the park send a working team to Cuba at a convenient time to share experiences with the Caribbean country and work with a number of centres that Cuba is to form, including an IT centre and a science-technology centre in Havana University and other biotechnology and pharmaceutical centres of Cuba.

The Cuban leader also proposed that representatives from the biotechnology sector of Cuba and the Saigon Hi-Tech Park work directly with each other to seek opportunities to form a joint venture or implement a joint research to develop pharmaceuticals in the park.

Currently, Cuba has succeeded in producing specific remedies and vaccines, but the country has faced difficulties in medicine production due to low capacity of factories, he noted, holding that this is a chance for the two sides to cooperate in producing medicines in Vietnam.-


VNA