Vietnam And US Seeking Ways To Boost Bilateral Ties

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

20 October 2008

A meeting between Vietnam's Chairman of the Government Office, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, and Barbara Weisel, Assistant US Trade Representative for Southeast Asia and the Pacific on October 15 has concluded that bilateral ties between the two countries are advancing at a satisfactory pace.

According to Mr Phuc, Vietnam has begun to actively implement the onset of several bilateral agreements in education, the environment and market economics.

For the first quarter of 2008, the US ranked top among foreign investors with eight projects of USD1.31bn, accounting for 25.5% of the total registered foreign capital arriving into Vietnam, with two-way trade turnover soaring from USD7.8bn in 2005 to USD9.7 and USD12bn in 2006 and 2007 respectively.

In addition, the minister also confirmed that the exchange of high-ranking delegations and discussions on technical issues will be sped up in order to boost cooperation in trade and investment between the two countries.

Mrs Weisel confirmed this claim, assuring that Vietnamese ministries and sectors are indeed doing all they can to implement the bilateral agreements signed during PM Nguyen Tan Dung's visit to the US from June 23-26, 2008.

She stated that her visit was aimed at "discussing mechanisms and measures to fruitfully realize the signed agreements."

Further meetings between the two countries are to be arranged for the future, where they intend to determine more specific ways to strengthen their growing relationship.

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