Vietnam, France vow to remove trade barriers

Vietnam and France have agreed on the necessity of removing trade barriers and obstacles in market approaches through bilateral dialogues, including Vietnam lifting its ban on French beef.

The agreement was reached during the third annual high-level economic dialogue chaired by Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment (MPI) Nguyen Chi Dung and Matthias Fekl, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad, in Hanoi on April 15.

The French side also proposed Vietnam to consider removing barriers to the import of French apples.

The two sides reaffirmed the significance of the annual economic dialogue in implementing the bilateral strategic partnership reached in September 2013.

They welcomed the growth in trade with a 10.6% rise in 2014 to hit EUR3.54 billion (US$3.76 billion).

Both sides voiced their support of fair and transparent trade exchanges. Vietnam suggested France help speed up the EU’s approval of the framework Partnership and Co-operation Agreement with Vietnam as well as the conclusion of negotiations for the Vietnam-EU free trade agreement in 2015.

Meanwhile, they highlighted that French projects in Vietnam, especially in science and technology as well as in aerospace, are evidence of joint efforts in enhancing co-operation and investment affiliation.

France has assisted Vietnam through preferential trade and export sponsorship while sharing its experience in building legal frameworks for public-private partnerships and providing official development assistance to Vietnam.

The two sides expressed their interest of increasing partnerships for sustainable growth, focusing on environmental protection, green production, emission reduction and climate change response.

This focus has been verified by a number of French projects in Vietnam, including a EUR20 million (US$21.2 million) Support Programme to Respond to Climate Change in Vietnam and a EUR19.5 million (US$20.7 million) general hospital project in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho.

French firms and research institutions are also eager to work with Vietnam in science research, healthcare and education.

According to MPI Deputy Minister Dung, opportunities for French businesses in Vietnam are plentiful, as Vietnam has a number of advantages in terms of investment environment, reformed institutions and policies coupled with low-cost labour and competitive infrastructure systems.

He pledged to create favourable conditions for French enterprises’ investment in Vietnam.

Deputy PM urges Vietnam – France trade ties

Vietnam and France should review their trade ties and seek new approaches to boost cooperation, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said.

Speaking at an April 15 reception in Hanoi for Matthias Fekl, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Promotion of Tourism and French Nationals Abroad under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, Deputy PM Hai hailed the results of the 3 rd annual Vietnam-France high-level economic dialogue.

He suggested that the two sides accelerate the implementation of joint agreements, including the “Vietnam Natural Resources, Environment and Disaster–monitoring Satellite” (VNREDSat-1); the Hanoi railway project (Nhon-Hanoi Station section); and the MoU between GDF Suez and Vietnam National Oil and Gas (PetroVietnam) group.

For his part, Fekl briefed the Deputy PM on the results from working with the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

He expressed his hope that the two nations would boost their cooperation in aviation, satellite supply, energy and infrastructure.

Deputy PM discusses Kien Giang’s FDI, border management

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh held a working session with leaders of the Mekong Delta province of Kien Giang on April 15 to discuss foreign direct investment (FDI), use of official development assistance loans and border management.

The Deputy Prime Minister hailed provincial efforts in land border demarcation and marker installation with Cambodia.

The locality shares a 56.8-km borderline with Cambodia and has completed the installation of 22 out of the planned 28 border markers.

Security has been maintained in border areas while bordering provinces of both Cambodia and Vietnam have increased their cooperation in trade, culture and defence alongside charitable activities, nurturing the traditional relations between the two countries.

The province has set up partnerships with five Cambodian cities and provinces in trade, tourism, agriculture, crime prevention and offshore and inland security protection.

It also provided its neighbouring provinces with 4 billion VND (185,200 USD) in financial support.

Regarding FDI, Kien Giang is home to 35 FDI projects by investors from 17 countries and territories worldwide with total registered funds of over 1.32 billion USD.

Deputy PM Minh stressed the locality’s potential for developing tourism and cross-border trade, as the Trans-Asia road connecting Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand runs through the province.

NA unhappy with uneven poverty mitigation results

Poverty reduction efforts are not achieving uniform results notwithstanding the fact that the ratio of poor has reduced sharply in many disadvantaged communes and districts, delegates heard at the closing session of the 10th plenary of the National Assembly's Social Affairs Committee in HCM City yesterday.

Deputy Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Ministry Nguyen Thanh Hoa said the national poverty had fallen from 14.2 per cent at the end of 2012 to 6 per cent at the end of last year, but in many ethnic communities, the rate was 50 per cent and even 70 per cent in some places.

Deputy chairman of the house's Social Affairs Committee, Do Manh Hung, pointed out that there were overlaps between the ministry's poverty reduction programme and the national new rural building programme in areas like subsidies for rural residents and support for infrastructure and education.

Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Pham Thi Hai Chuyen said, "The Government has ordered the finance; planning and investment; and labour, invalids and social affairs ministries to study and provide solutions for eliminating such overlaps."

She said her ministry would study what ratio of poor households could not improve because of diseases, lack of income and lack of able-bodied members to work before adopting proper policies for them.

"In September the ministry will come up with a new poverty threshold because the current one is very low and does not reflect the real situation."

To ensure poverty reduction was sustainable, delegate Pham Duc Chau said efforts should be focused on localities with the highest number of poor households, with programmes implemented simultaneously to prevent people who have climbed out of poverty from falling back into it.

The meeting also heard the ministry's report on socio-economic goals, national programmes on vocational training and jobs, controlling prostitution, achieving gender equality and ensuring labour safety and hygiene.

Many members said the Government should consider lowering the targets for vocational training and proportion of skilled workers.

The 10th plenary session of the Social Affairs Committee ended yesterday after a three-day session.

At the session, members heard reports from the ministries of Public Security and Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs on drug fighting in 2011-15, gender equality, use and management of the Social Insurance Fund, the Labour Safety Law, and State management of medical licensing.

Earlier on Tuesday, Deputy Minister of Public Security, Senior Lieutenant General Le Quy Vuong, told the meeting that the number of drug addicts in Viet Nam was growing.

In 2014, the country had more than 204,000 registered drug addicts, up 42.7 per cent from 2010, Vuong said. He added that the types of people becoming addicted now included students, athletes and intellectuals.

Bui Sy Loi, deputy head of the committee, said the Ministry of Public Security was closely working with border and sea police and customs to control the entry of illicit drugs.

He said authorities knew of more than 250 meeting places where drug users gathered throughout Viet Nam, adding that many places in northwest border communes were unable to control drug-related crime.

To deal with the problems, Vuong said the ministry would devise a drug prevention programme for 2016-20 to submit to the Government.

During the meeting, delegates also heard a report on the implementation of the national target programme on gender equality and the use and management of social insurance for 2014. 

Vietnamese anniversaries commemorated in Brazil

A special session has been held recently in Maranhão State, Brazil to celebrate upcoming major Vietnamese events, including the 40th anniversary of Southern Liberation and National Reunification.

Maranhão Parliament Vice Chairman Othelino Neto expressed his admiration of the late President Ho Chi Minh and the Party and people of Vietnam during their previous struggles and current development cause.

He went on to proclaim Maranhão wants to strengthen its friendship with the Southeast Asian nation.

His statement was well-received and seconded by Vietnamese Ambassador to Brazil Nguyen Van Kien.

On the occasion, the Maranhão Parliament together with the Vietnamese Embassy organised a film screening and a photo exhibition to promote Vietnam’s scenery and Vietnam-Brazil joint achievements thus far.

Maranhão boasts the second largest sea port in Brazil, holding promising potential for cooperation with Vietnam in agriculture, ore mining, garment & textiles and scientific research, among others.

In recent years, Vietnam and Brazil quickly raised their bilateral trade revenue from 1 billion USD in 2010 to almost 2.4 billion USD in 2013 and more than 3 billion USD in 2014. The trending growth makes Brazil the largest Vietnamese business partner in Latin America.

Full-time NA deputies debate major draft laws

Full-time National Assembly (NA) deputies convened a three-day meeting in Hanoi to scrutinise important draft laws scheduled to be addressed at the parliament’s ninth session in late May.

NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung said draft laws open for discussion are major bills critical to the NA’s law-making activities at the upcoming ninth session.

He asked the full-time members, which now account for 28 percent of the total 500 NA deputies, to carefully consider and give multifaceted opinions on the draft laws.

During the first working day on April 15, deputies mulled over the debatable contents of the draft law on legal document issuance, which was also appraised at the NA’s eighth session in late 2014 and the recent meeting of the NA Standing Committee.

The Standing Committee said it is necessary to give district authorities the right to issue legal documents to ensure these documents match local conditions. The bill must clearly stipulate issuance processes to minimise the current inefficiency of a number of district-level legal documents.

Members of the Committee suggested the right to promulgate legal documents not be given to grassroots communal authorities already in charge of implementing legal documents. They underscored many communal documents are either replicates of already existing documents or are not in accordance with those of upper agencies.

Some argued that communal authorities are State managerial agencies at the grassroots level and have the competence to issue legal documents. Rather, current shortcomings are ascribable to officials’ limited capacity.

Several full-time members said this issue needs thorough consideration to avoid obstacles in performing the duties of communal authorities. The NA should seek solutions to low quality legal documents instead of revoking local administrations’ rights.

State leader attends Army Officer School traditional day

State President Truong Tan Sang presented the third Ho Chi Minh Order to Army Officer School I while attending a celebration of its 70th traditional day on April 15.

Army Officer School I was the first military school established by the first Commander in Chief of the Vietnam People’s Army General Vo Nguyen Giap.

Over the past seven decades, it has organised 82 training courses and graduated more than 100,000 officers. The school has also helped train military officers for Asian, African and Latin American countries, most notably the neighbouring Laos.

Speaking at the ceremony, the State leader requested the school renew its curricula as well as improve upon teaching and learning methods in order to train officers who meet requirements of the Party, State and Army.-

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh has asked Kien Giang province to further accelerate foreign affairs not only with Cambodia’s border localities but also with other ASEAN countries as part of the master policy on regional ties.

The deputy PM made the request at an April 15 meeting with provincial leaders on local foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction, use of official development assistance (ODA) loans and results of border demarcation with Cambodian provinces.

Deputy PM Minh spoke highly of Kien Giang’s outstanding socio-economic performances over the past few years, while lauding the province’s efforts in boosting Vietnam-Cambodian land border demarcation and landmark planting, towards finalising demarcation work across the Southwest border.

He urged Kien Giang to pay special attention to promoting the tourism industry by bringing into full play its advantages and potential including national and international border gates and, most notably, the trans-Asia road connecting the province with Cambodia, Thailand and Laos.

Regarding human resource training for Cambodia’s border localities, Kien Giang must focus on improving training quality aiming to ensure quality outputs, Minh noted.

At the meeting, the deputy PM also commented on Kien Giang’s recommendations on lengthening the daily opening hours of Ha Tien international border gate, raising allowances for demarcation and landmark planting officials, and on a water supply project for Phu Quoc Island.

FM Spokesman announces diplomatic activities

FM Spokesman Le Hai Binh answered questions raised by press agencies at a press conference on April 9.

When asked about Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s official visit to China from April 7-10, Mr. Binh revealed that at the talks with the Communist Party of China (CPC) General Secretary and State President Xi Jinping, the two leaders exchanged and reached joint consensus on some orientations and measures to enhance trust, strengthen relations, and step up cooperation in all fields to promote Viet Nam-China Comprehensive Strategic Cooperative Partnership more sustainbly in the future.

Referring to the ASEAN Summit, the Spokesman anounced that the 26th ASEAN Summit will be held in Malaysia from April 26-27, focusing on main issues including the ASEAN Community and ASEAN’s post-2015 vision, ASEAN's central role, impacts of the financial crisis and the slow recovery of economies in the region, solutions of ASEAN nations to diasters management, climate change and regional peace, security, marine and aviation safety. In addition, the accelaration of the Code of Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC) negotiations wil be discussed.

Answering the question about how Viet Nam evaluates the first presence and role of Cuba at the Summit of the Americas,Mr. Binh asserted that Viet Nam welcomes efforts of all the nations to make active contribution to strengthening peace, stability, cooperation and development in the America. Viet Nam hopes that Cuba will do its utmost to achieve these goals during its first participation in the Summit.

Earlier, the FM Spokesman announced some upcoming diplomatic activities.

National Assembly Vice Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan will lead a Vietnamese delegation to join Viet Nam Executive Leadership Program (VELP) at Harvard University, the US and pay an working visit to the US from April 11-21.  

The visit aims to promote the Comprehensive Partnership between Viet Nam and the US, especially when the two sides are celebrating the 20th anniversary of normalization of diplomatic ties.

The two sides will exchange information and enhance cooperation in areas of mutual concerns. Vice Chairwoman Ngan will exchange views with professionals and scholars on Viet Nam's socio-economic development guidelines and policies as well as the reform of its legal and judiciary institutions.

VNA/Nhan Dan/VGP