NA leader hosts reception for NZ ambassador

National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan received New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Heather Mhairi Riddell in Hanoi on Friday.

Ngan expressed her wish that the Vietnamese and New Zealand parliaments will enhance cooperation in training and improving capacity of NA deputies, especially full-time deputies.

The NA leader also affirmed that Vietnam always creates favorable conditions for businesses of the two countries to promote trade and investment cooperation.

For her part, Ambassador Heather Mhairi Riddell praised Vietnam’s efforts to control inflation, ensure social security and stable growth.

The NZ diplomat pledged to do her utmost to promote all-round cooperation between the two countries and create favorable conditions for NZ and Vietnamese businesses to cooperate.

New Zealand has granted 30 scholarships to Vietnamese students and is implementing an initiative for young Vietnamese entrepreneurs to study and exchange experience in corporate management in New Zealand, she added.

PM Dung’s activities in Netherlands

Vietnam and the Netherlands have agreed to lift bilateral relations to a new height, especially in the fields of climate change adaptation, water management, seaports, oil and gas, agriculture and logistics.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made the affirmation at a meeting with representatives of the Dutch business community, jointly organized by the Dutch Council for Trade Promotion and Foreign Ministry on Sept. 30.

PM Dung said that with the presence and effective operations of well-known companies like Unilever, Royal Dutch Shell, Philips, Foremost, Heineken and small and medium-sized enterprises in many fields, Dutch businesses are playing an important role in Vietnam’s economy.

The leader said he believed that with strong support of the Vietnamese government, Dutch businesses would uphold their strengths to successfully invest in Vietnam, especially in the fields of clean and renewable energies, biodiversity, food safety, environment, urban planning and water management.

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal called on domestic businesses to increase investment in Vietnam to effectively exploit advantages of the emerging economy.

The same day, PM Dung met with Prince Willem Alexander and Dutch strategic advisors. He also visited sea dikes and seaports in Rotterdam city.

Prime Minister meets Dutch Queen

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on Thursday met with Dutch Queen Beatrix as part of his official visit to the Netherlands.

PM Dung informed Queen Beatrix of the results of his talks with his Dutch counterpart, during which the two PMs outlined many concrete measures to deepen cooperation in all areas, especially in five priority areas of climate change adaptation and water resource management, agriculture, sea ports, oil and gas, and logistics services.

Vietnam values the Netherlands’ experience in water management, especially in the context of rising sea level’s serious impacts forecast for Vietnam, PM Dung said.

He expressed his hope that the Dutch Royal House will continue to encourage and create conditions for the Dutch Government and companies to enhance cooperation with Vietnam.

Dung’s views were shared by Queen Beatrix who said she was pleased at the fine development in the relationship between the Netherlands and Vietnam over the past time.

She highly valued Vietnam’s socio-economic achievements, especially its fulfillment of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.

On the same day, PM Dung held talks with Dutch Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation Maxime Verhagen.

As one of the countries hardest hit by climate change and the rising sea level, Vietnam needs more technical and human resource assistance from the Netherlands to help the country cope with these issues, said Dung.

He expressed his hope that the Netherlands will cooperate with Vietnam in improving the quality of agricultural products and creating favourable conditions for Vietnamese goods to penetrate Dutch and European markets.

For his part, Deputy PM Maxime Verhagen affirmed that he will pay attention to Dung’s proposals and suggested the two sides further step up cooperation in health care, education and training and culture as well as investment promotion activities.

The Deputy PM also underlined the need for Vietnam and the Netherlands to enhance dialogue mechanism in order to timely address difficulties in cooperation.

Later on the day, PM Dung attended a banquet hosted by Dutch Foreign Minister Rosenthal and witnessed the signing of a number of agreements by Vietnamese and Dutch companies regarding cooperation in sea port, ship building, and agricultural and mechanical vocational training.

VN, Switzerland see potential for cooperation

Switzerland and Vietnam hold great potential for cooperation and the two nations can develop further their bilateral relations in the years to come, said Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey.

President Calmy-Rey made the remark in an interview granted to Vietnam News Agency correspondents in Switzerland, as the two countries are celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties this month (Oct. 11, 1971-2011).

The President stressed that Switzerland and Vietnam have enjoyed fine relations over the past 40 years, especially in economics. Bilateral trade balance is now profitable for Vietnam and this is an important development momentum for the country, she added.

President Calmy-Rey went on to say that Switzerland always wants to go abreast with Vietnam in economic development. Therefore, Switzerland has changed its policy towards Vietnam, with a focus on economic cooperation and partnership with the Southeast Asian nation.

The President also expressed her delight at human rights dialogues between Switzerland and Vietnam, saying that these dialogues brought benefits to both countries.

In addition, the two countries agreed to step up cooperation in training and research between their universities, she added.

Hanoi voters air complaints to Party leader

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong met with voters in Hoan Kiem and Tay Ho districts, Hanoi, on October 1 to hear their opinions and complaints ahead of the second session of the 13th National Assembly.

At the meeting, voters expressed their opinions, aspirations and recommendations to the National Assembly. The opinions focused on shortage of kindergartens, plans for the construction of schools, equipment for schools, policies and conditions for those who work at the Fatherland Front and mass organisations at grassroots level.

Mr Trong acknowledged and thanked the voters for recommendations and opinions.

Regarding the voters’ interests in on socio-economic issues, he affirmed efforts to pursue the implementation of the Politburo’s Direction 02 and the Government’s Resolution 11/CP on curbing inflation, maintaining macro-economic stability and ensuring social security.

The Party leader agreed with the voters’ opinions on the need to reform law-making work in the direction of improving quality and ensuring the implementation of laws, to raise the efficiency of supreme supervision of the National Assembly, particularly overseeing the enforcement of laws and urgent socio-economic issues.

President visits Phu Son prison

The Party and State always maintain a policy of clemency for those offenders who have shown repentance, encouraging them to redeem themselves and become useful persons.

State President Truong Tan Sang said this during a visit to Phu Son prison in Thai Nguyen province on October 2.

Mr Sang praised the efforts of officials and policemen at Phu Son prison to manage and educate offenders, help them overcome their guilt and believe in Party and State’s policy of clemency. He also encouraged offenders to redeem themselves so they can quickly return to their families.

Mr Sang also sympathised with the difficulties facing prison officials and policemen and urged provincial leaders to pay more attention to improving the situation by building new infrastructure and providing incentives. He expressed his hope that they will successfully fulfill their assigned tasks.

Phu Son prison now houses more than 4,000 offenders. Recently, 279 prisoners were granted amnesty and thousands of offenders had their jail terms reduced to between three months and two years.

Vietnamese, Lao localities step up cooperation

A delegation from Vietnam’s northern province of Quang Ninh led by Nguyen Van Doc, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, is on a working visit to Laos from October 1-8.

The visit aims to boost cooperation between the province and northern Lao provinces of Luang Prabang, Sayabuly and Houaphan.

At an October 1 meeting with Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, Doc informed his host of Quang Ninh’s cooperation plan with the three provinces of Laos, saying Quang Ninh will build a park in Houaphan province and a high school in Luang Prabang province.

Quang Ninh and the three northern Lao provinces also plan to conduct visits to enhance mutual understanding, exchange experience and promote their cooperation in trade, tourism, culture, education and human resource development, said Doc.

He affirmed that the provinces will create the most favourable conditions for each other’s businesses, contributing to strengthening cooperation between the two countries.

For his part, the Lao PM congratulated Quang Ninh on its socio-economic achievements, saying the province’s cooperation with the northern Lao provinces is very useful to their development.

Socio-economic development focuses on three breakthroughs

The five-year socio-economic development plan will focus on achieving breakthroughs three specific areas: completing institutions for a socialist-oriented market economy, training high quality human resources, and improving the transport system and urban infrastructure.

On the last working day of its second session on October 1, the National Assembly Standing Committee discussed a Government report on the implementation of socio-economic plans and State budget estimates for 2011 as well as socio-economic development orientations, tasks and plans; State budget estimates and allocations for 2012; socio-economic development in the 2011-2015 period; national targets for the 2011-2015 period; and the use of government bonds in the 2011-2015 period.

According to the report, for the remainder of 2011 the Government will prioritize containing inflation, stabilizing the macro-economy and ensuring social welfare.

For 2011 and first years of the five-year there will be less focus on GDP growth in order to prevent high inflation.

FDI in the first nine months of this year is estimated to reach US$8.2 billion, up 0.2 percent compared to the same period in 2010. 675 new projects were granted investment licenses with total registered capital of more than US$8.23 billion. US$2.15 billion worth of ODA capital was disbursed, equal to 89.6 percent of this year’s planned amount.

Based on the results so far, it is estimated that GDP will grow by 5.8-6 percent this year while the target set by the National Assembly is 7-7.5 percent. The export value will increase by 31.6 percent with an import surplus of 10.5 percent; total social investment capital will go up 34.5 percent; and the consumer price index (CPI) will rise 18 percent. The respective targets set by the NA are 10 percent, a maximum of 18 percent, 34.5 percent and 7 percent.

Six out of 22 targets set for 2011 will not be reached, including economic growth, CPI, total social investment capital, the number of villages meeting the criteria for new rural areas, the reduction of the number of poor households and the number of rural people with access to safe water supplies.

The Government also devised targets and criteria for the 2011-2015 socio-economic development plan based on the current situation at home and in the world. Accordingly, it will focus on containing inflation, stabilizing the economy, maintaining growth while restructuring the economy and improving quality, and establishing an effective and competitive growth model towards sustainable development by 2013.

It will focus on the three strategic breakthroughs and 12 major orientations in its socio-economic development strategy.

The Government proposed two scenarios for economic growth in the next five years; in one the GDP will grow by 6.5 percent and by 7 percent in the other.

Vietnam, Laos strengthen information exchange

A delegation from the CPV Central Committee’s Commission for Popularisation and Education led by its head Dinh The Huynh is on a four-day visit to Laos from September 29 to boost information exchange with the Lao side.

On September 30, the delegation visited several Lao ministries, agencies, economic establishments in Vientiane.

Visiting the Lao Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism (MICT), Huynh spoke highly of the effective cooperation between the MICT and Vietnam ’s relevant ministries and agencies, especially the successful organisation of a Vietnamese Cultural Week in Laos .

Huynh and MICT Minister Bosengkham Vongdala discussed measures to strengthen exchanges and experience sharing as well as several issues of common concern.

The Lao minister expressed his belief that the multi-faceted cooperation in the information, culture and tourism sector will further develop in the future.

On the same day, the Vietnamese delegation visited Pasasone newspaper, the official organ of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, and the Laos-Vietnam Bank.

Party leader receives Chinese Ambassador

Vietnam consistently attaches importance to strengthening and developing the traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation with China.

Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong made the statement while receiving the newly accredited Chinese Ambassador to Vietnam, Kong Xuanyou, in Hanoi on September 30.

Mr Trong said that the lifting of bilateral relations to the level of comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership crated a firm foundation and momentum for development of the Vietnam-China relationship in the future.

Regarding the existing issues in Vietnam-China relations, the Party leader said the two sides should continue peaceful negotiations to settle the issues satisfactorily, based on the spirit of comradeship, mutual respect and respect for international law.

He also expressed his hope that ambassador Kong will make positive contributions to developing Vietnam-China cooperative relations during his term of office in Vietnam.

Ambassador Kong promised to do his utmost to promote cooperative ties between the two countries in all fields, thus contributing to strengthening the friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and China in the time to come.

Congratulations to Cyprus and Nigeria on National Day

President Truong Tan Sang sent congratulatory messages to Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias for Cyprus National Day (October 1), on September 30.

Mr. Sang also conveyed his congratulations to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on the country’s 51st National Day.

On the occasion, Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh extended his greetings of congratulation to his Cypriot and Nigerian counterparts, Erato Kozakou –Marcoullis and Olugbenga Ashiru.

Vietnam-Romania relations highlighted

A photo exhibition on the Vietnam-Romania friendship was held in the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City on September 30 to celebrate the 61st anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The event, organised by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in coordination with the embassy of Romania in Vietnam, aims to advance cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between the two countries.

On display are 120 photos documenting milestones in the history of diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Romania, particularly high-ranking meetings among leaders, including visits to Romania by late President Ho Chi Minh, late Party General Secretary Le Duan and late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong.

The exhibition also tells about bilateral cooperative activities in six decades of Vietnam-Romania diplomatic ties.

Speaking at the event, Dumiku Olaru, Romanian ambassador to Vietnam, said the exhibition showed the process of developing bilateral relations in such fields as politics, economics, culture, education and training, national defence, and others for the common interest of the two peoples.

Vietnam attaches importance to strengthening cooperation with Malaysia

Malaysia is one of Vietnam’s leading investors and trade partners, said Vietnamese State President Truong Tan Sang during his current visit to Malaysia.

President: visit to lift cooperation with Malaysia

He made the statement while receiving former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in Kuala Lumpur on September 30.

President Sang emphasized that Vietnam always attaches importance to boosting its traditional friendship and cooperation with Malaysia.

The Vietnamese leader highlighted Malaysia’s recent economic achievements and Mahathir Mohamad’s important role in his country and thanked the Malaysian government and Mahathir Mohamad for actively contributing to Vietnam’s renovation process.

For his part, the former Malaysian PM spoke highly of Mr Sang’s visit to Malaysia, saying this will help to lift the bilateral relations to a higher level.

He also expressed his admiration for Vietnam’s economic growth as well as its security and political stability in recent years.

He agreed that the two countries should join efforts to build the ASEAN Community, strictly follow the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and invent the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC).

*** On the same day, President Sang made a tour of Putrajaya city and visited the Quality Hero factory where many Vietnamese labourers were working.

VNA