Vietnamese Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh (R) and her South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa

The concurrence was reached at talks between Vietnamese Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh and her South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa, in Hanoi on October 3.

The two sides expressed their pleasure at the Vietnam-South Africa growing relations over the past two decades, especially since the establishment of partnership for cooperation and development in 2004.

They concurred to boost cooperative ties between the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) and the African National Congress (ANC), which will lay a foundation for the enhancement of high-level delegation exchanges and bilateral collaboration across politics, economics, and trade.

Both countries pledged to continuously work together at international forums. South Africa shared Vietnam’s standpoints of addressing any dispute in the East Sea via peaceful means and international law.

Deputy President Ramaphosa proposed the two nations diversify their economic and trade links to double two-way trade and create trade balance for mutual benefits.

On the economic front, the two sides hope to closely coordinate in the trade of farm produce, marine economy like shipbuilding, fishing and seafood breeding.

They also discussed measures to orient cooperation in telecommunication, training, and crime prevention as well as implement the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to protect wildlife animals.

South Africa bolsters relations with Vietnam

The official visit to Vietnam by Deputy President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa from October 3-4 aims to further political, economic and trade relations between the two countries.

According to the South Africa’s Presidency, the South African government highly values potential for economic cooperation with Vietnam – one of the highest-growth economies in Southeast Asia.

Vietnam could bring enormous trade opportunities for South African businesses, especially in the fields of transport, mining, infrastructure building, and defense industry.

On the occasion of the Deputy President’s visit, South Africa hopes to diversify its export products to Vietnam – a new potential market.

Ramaphosa will exchange with Vietnamese leaders about increasing the number of South African students majoring in marine economy in Vietnam, including shipbuilding.

The visit is expected to create new development in the bilateral traditional friendship, especially in the sea-based economy.

Vietnam’s fishing and aquatic breeding sector constitutes one of the important development programmes to help South Africa reduce poverty and address unemployment.

According to the latest statistics from South Africa, Vietnam is currently its fourth biggest trade partner in Southeast Asia with two-way trade surpassing 18.5 billion Rand (around 1.3 billion USD) compared to 13.4 billion Rand (1.1 billion USD) in 2014.

VNA