The partnership between Vietnam and France is developing with bright future prospects, stated Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Ngoc Son in an interview with the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the upcoming Lunar New Year (Tet).
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| Vietnamese Ambassador to France Nguyen Ngoc Son. |
Vietnam and France have enjoyed a growing partnership in all fields, including politics, economy, culture, education, science, technology and defence, he noted.
The two countries lifted up their relationship to strategic partnership in September 2013 during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to France , depicting political determination of both sides to further bolster the ties, said the diplomat.
He held that in order to deepen bilateral ties, the two sides should strengthen the exchange of delegations at all levels, while maintaining and promoting the existing dialogue mechanisms, including those on economics and diplomacy-defence.
Meanwhile, both sides should beef up economic cooperation by creating favourable conditions for businesses to access each other’s market, encouraging investment in prioritised sectors of each country, including energy, infrastructure, environment, health care, aerospace, and security and defence.
At the same time, collaboration on education and personnel training should be expanded, while cultural exchange and people-to people contacts should be strengthened, enhancing mutual understanding, he added.
The ambassador also emphasised the need for the two countries to increase decentralised affiliation, including direct cooperation among 50 localities of both sides with hundreds of joint projects.
Vietnam and France are also preparing for the 10th conference of bilateral decentralised cooperation in Can Tho city in 2016, he noted.
The diplomat, said Vietnam and France have set up legal frameworks for their economic partnership by signing a number of agreements, including investment protection and encouragement, double tax avoidance.
France is now Vietnam ’s leading partner in the Europe with two-way trade reaching 3.1 billion EUR last year and total investment of 3.3 billion EUR in Vietnam . France and is also Vietnam’s largest European donor, he noted.
Ambassador Son pointed out that there is room for both sides to further enhance their economic collaboration to reach their potential.
He expressed belief that over 307,000 Vietnamese working and studying in France will also contribute to the expansion of business partnership between the two countries.
On the occasion, he also praised contributions by the Vietnamese community to promoting the image of Vietnam to French friends, and expressed his belief that they will continue to make efforts in realising the strategic partnership between the two countries.
(Source: VNA)
