President meets five newly appointed ambassadors

HA NOI — President Nguyen Minh Triet yesterday met with newly appointed ambassadors to the country.

Triet welcomed the new ambassadors of India, Ukraine, Chile, Rwanda and El Savador, saying that Viet Nam always wanted to strengthen and expand friendship and co-operative relations with these countries.

Triet and the new ambassadors talked about bilateral relations and co-operation potential between Viet Nam and these countries, especially in trade and investment for mutual development.

He asked the ambassadors to co-ordinate with relevant Vietnamese offices to foster exchange visits in order to share development experiences and mutual understanding.

VN-Angola plan to share their experiences in health, education

HA NOI — Viet Nam is willing to co-operate and share its experiences with Angola in fields of common interest for mutual benefit, for peace, co-operation and development, permanent member of the Party Central Committee's Secretariat Truong Tan Sang said yesterday.

Sang, who is also a Politburo member, was speaking to Angolan Secretary of State Exalgina Gamboa in a meeting during her visit to Viet Nam to attend the Viet Nam-Africa International Seminar in Ha Noi.

Exalgina highly valued Viet Nam's success in organising the second Viet Nam – Africa seminar and its socio-economic development, saying that Angola wanted to boost co-operation in health, education, agriculture, oil and gas, poverty reduction and food security.

Viet Nam has made good use of ADB assistance: Deputy PM

HA NOI – Viet Nam is implementing administrative reform and heightening the effectiveness of Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem said yesterday.

Khiem, who is also Minister of Foreign Affairs, was meeting with Vice President of the Asian Development Bank Lawrence Greenwood on the occasion of the latter's visit to Viet Nam to attend the Greater Mekong Sub-region's Ministerial Meeting in Ha Noi from August 19-20.

Khiem spoke highly of the ADB's support in the past, which had considerably contributed to the country's socio-economic development.

Lawrence said he was impressed by Viet Nam's development, adding that many countries could learn from Viet Nam's experience in poverty reduction.

He said the ADB also wanted to foster co-operation with Viet Nam on power generation, metro construction and called on Viet Nam to contribute to the ASEAN Infrastructure Construction Fund.

Viet Nam, Central Africa to co-operate on development

HA NOI — Central Africa was eager to send a delegation to Viet Nam to learn and share experiences on the participation of the armed forces in economic activities, said Joseph Kiticki Kouamba, Minister and Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Central Africa Republic yesterday.

He was meeting Minister of National Defence Phung Quang Thanh during his visit to Viet Nam to attend the second Viet Nam-Africa International Seminar, intended to provide opportunities to boost information exchanges and co-operation between Viet Nam, Central Africa and African countries in general.

At the meeting, Thanh introduced Viet Nam's experience of integrating the armed forces in the modernisation and industrialisation process and how the forces had been key to building a strong and solid national defence. — VNS