Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung (L) andEuropean Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen

Whilein Brussels, Dung had meetings with European Commission Vice-President forJobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness Jyrki Katainen, EuropeanCommissioner for Trade Cecilia Malmström, Chairman of the European Parliament’sCommittee on International Trade Bernd Lange, head of the Directorate-Generalfor Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Joost Korte, and Belgian Deputy PrimeMinister and Minister of Economy and Employment Kris Peeters.

Discussionsat the working sessions focused on issues related to labour commitments in thechapter on trade and sustainable development of the EVFTA – which has drawnattention of the EU during the preparation process for the signing andratification of the agreement.

MinisterDung informed EU and Belgian leaders of the Vietnamese National Assembly’sapproval of a resolution on Vietnam’s accession to the ILO’s Convention 98 onthe Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining on June 14.

Hestressed that together with trade and investment cooperation, Vietnam has paidspecial attention to inclusive and sustainable development, with the people putat the centre.

Theofficial showed his hope that the EU and Vietnam will maintain closecooperation to speed up the signing of the EVFTA and the EU-Vietnam InvestmentPromotion Agreement (EVIPA) in the coming time and ratify them within thisyear.

TheEU and Belgian sides spoke highly of Vietnam’s efforts, especially in ratifyingthe Convention 98 and in revising and supplementing its Labour Code, which areconsidered one of the decisive conditions for the European Council’sconsideration of allowing the European Commission to sign the EVFTA at thesoonest time.-VNA