Leaders meet during visit to China expo

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao while he attended the opening ceremony of the eighth China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO) in Nanning City, Guangxi Province yesterday, Oct 20.

Phuc congratulated China for the outstanding achievements the country has attained, which have helped make China into the world's second biggest economy and which have contributed to peace, stability and prosperous growth in the region and the world.

Photo: Xinhuanet

The expo was a good opportunity for ASEAN and China to enhance friendly exchange and to seek further co-operation in economics, trade, investment and tourism. It also helped to strengthen the ASEAN-China strategic partnership, Phuc said.

Wen said he appreciated that Phuc led the Vietnamese Government's delegation to the expo. He also said that Viet Nam, with the highest number of enterprises taking part in the expo, demonstrated its own economic achievements in recent years and had successfully integrated the Vietnamese economy into the region at large.

For many years, China has been Viet Nam's biggest trading partner and the potential for co-operation remained huge, Wen said, adding that the promotion of economic and trade ties between the two would benefit the people of both nations.

The Premier also said the Viet Nam's participation in the expo would create the chance to expand co-operation between Viet Nam and China and between Viet Nam and other regional countries.

The two leaders spoke particularly highly of the recent official visit to China by Vietnamese Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, which had helped boost the comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership between the two parties and countries.

The two sides said they would seriously carry out any agreements and consensus reached by their high-ranking leaders and open up more exchange activities between sectors, ministries and localities.

Phuc and Wen praised the signing of the agreement to resolve the sea conflict. They said it was a crucial step for the two countries to push harder to solve any outstanding disagreements.

The two sides agreed that they would work together on the spirit of comradeship, neighbourly friendship, and shared interest, co-ordinating on the basis of international law and via dialogues and co-operation. They pledged to seek a proper course of action for matters relating to the East Sea, in an aim to preserve peace, stability and co-operation in the region and the world.

On the occasion, Phuc sent regards from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to Premier Wen and invited him to visit Viet Nam again.

Wen also sent regards to Dung and other leaders, and said he wished to visit Viet Nam at a proper time.

On the same day, Phuc received Lao Standing Deputy Prime Minister, Politburo member Somsavat Lengsavat, who also attended the fair.

They hailed progress in the recent relations between the two countries, and said they would be active in encouraging Viet Nam-Laos solidarity for the year 2012.

The expo, part of a series of activities held in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the ASEAN-China partnership, is scheduled to take place from October 21-26.

Labour co-operation to be expanded

Viet Nam hoped Finland would seek more opportunities to expand co-operation on labour with the country, said Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai as he met with Finnish mayors in Ha Noi yesterday, Oct 20.

The delegation, led by President of the Council of Mayors of Finland and Executive Director of Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia Peltola Asko Antero, was on a visit to Viet Nam from October 16-21.

Hai said the Vietnamese Government always supported co-operative ties between localities of the two countries, which are also important to enhancing the friendly relations.

He said he expected that Finnish regions would work with Vietnamese partners to expand labour co-operation, and he hoped Finnish cities would offer more scholarship opportunities for Vietnamese students.

The guests said they had worked with some ministries and sectors, and visited major cities to learn more about co-operation potential, particularly in the areas of trade, investment, education-training and labour.

They also said they would work to create conditions for Finnish enterprises to invest in Viet Nam.

US envoy received in Ha Noi

Deputy Defence Minister Lieut Gen Nguyen Chi Vinh received US Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-proliferation Thomas Countryman in Ha Noi yesterday, Oct 20.

The two sides exchanged views on preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within the bilateral framework in anticipation of the upcoming East Asia Summit in Indonesia in mid-November.

Vinh hailed the US Assistant Secretary of State's visit to Viet Nam and the positive results of co-operation in defence between Viet Nam and the US.

He affirmed Viet Nam's standpoint on supporting disarmament and said the initiative to combat proliferation was a noble ideal aimed at bringing peace and benefiting Viet Nam-US relations.

Youth development ‘a major challenge'

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has affirmed that fostering the development of young human resources is a major challenge and an urgent priority for the governments of ASEAN.

He made the statement in Ha Noi yesterday, Oct 20, at the opening ceremony of the 7th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth, the first of this kind hosted by Viet Nam.

The meeting, with the theme of ‘youth and human resource development, investing in the future of the ASEAN community', was an opportunity for ASEAN youth ministers and their counterparts from Japan, China and South Korea to discuss the aspirations of young people and consider drastic measures to boost their contribution to the ASEAN community by 2015.

It focused on encouraging young people to engage in leadership programmes and develop business skills, in addition to promoting co-operation among youth associations.

Speaking at the meeting, the PM said he valued the significant contributions of young people to ASEAN over the past 44 years of the community's existence.

He stressed that ASEAN young people, 60 per cent of whom were under 30, would be the future of this regional network. However, their social and business skills would still need to be improved to meet practical demands.

Dung spoke highly of the meeting, saying it addressed a pressing topic for young people's development. He said Viet Nam had always attached a special importance to the training and fostering of young human resources, proven by Viet Nam's strategic goals for the next 10 years.

He said young people in each member country should strengthen their co-operation with their partner nations, as well as with Japan, China and South Korea.

He expressed his hope that the ministers would come up with action programmes and initiatives on this issue, bringing the ASEAN community into the international arena.

The ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Youth, which is held every two years, is one of many co-operative activities among the youth of member countries. It has attracted the participation of both high-ranking officials and youth representatives.

The results of the meeting will be reported at the ASEAN Summit in Indonesia this November.

VNN/VOV/VNS/VNA