Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem on Sept. 12 wrapped up his official
visit to the UK, where he reached agreements on boosting cooperation
between the Communist Party of Vietnam and UK political parties and
on coordination for the British Prime Minister’s visit to Vietnam in
2011.
The UK visit by Deputy PM Khiem, who is also Foreign Minister,
established a new framework for the two countries’ relationship – the
strategic partnership – which lays an important foundation for Vietnam
and the UK to step up their cooperation in a deep, all-sided,
stable and sustainable manner in the future.
During his visit,
started on Sept. 8, the Vietnamese official held talks with Foreign
Secretary William Hague where they signed a joint declaration on the
establishment of the two countries’ strategic partnership.
Deputy
PM Khiem also met with Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons Lindsay
Hoyle, Parliamentary Under-secretary of State at the Department for
Business, Innovation and Skills Edward Davey, Acting Leader of the
Labour Party Harriet Harman, and Acting Lord Mayor of the City of
London David Lewis .
He attended and opened a seminar promoting
infrastructure investment in Vietnam held at the headquarters of the
City of London and visited some leading economic groups.
At these
meetings, the sides discussed main measures and orientations to push up
their cooperation and at the same time talked about regional and
international issues of mutual concern.
They reached a consensus
on increasing the exchange of visits at all levels and coordinating in
making and implementing action plans to soon activate the strategic
partnership, especially in such areas of priority as economy, trade,
investment, cooperation for development, education and training.
They
vowed to achieve the targets of 4 billion USD in two-way trade and 3
billion USD in the UK ’s investment in Vietnam within or prior to
2013 and agreed to set up a deputy foreign ministerial strategic
dialogue mechanism for bolstering the two countries’ cooperation and
their coordination at international forums, particularly in the UN,
ASEM, ASEAN-EU and WTO.
The UK officials spoke highly of
Vietnam ’s socio-economic development achievements, especially the
country’s high economic growth rate and socio-political stability in the
context of the global economic crisis.
They noted that Vietnam
has become a leading newly-emerging economy in the region with its
position increasingly rising in the international arena, serving as an
outstanding model among developing countries.
Deputy PM Khiem
showed his pleasure at great developments in the two countries’
multi-dimensional cooperation in the recent time, especially in the
fields of economy, trade, investment, education and training.
He
thanked the UK Government and people for providing Vietnam with a
remarkable amount of ODA. The UK is leading other EU countries in the
supply of non-refundable aid for Vietnam and is the first EU country
that has committed to granting ODA to Vietnam till 2016.
The
UK leaders said they will prioritise their ODA for Vietnam in the
fields of poverty reduction, healthcare, education and response to
climate change.
The UN governmental and parliamentary officials
as well as the political and business circles welcomed and spoke highly
of the signing of the joint declaration on the establishment of
Vietnam-UK Strategic Partnership, describing it an extremely important
event marking a turning point in lifting the two countries’ cooperation
to a new height both in the bilateral and multilateral frameworks./.
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