Monday, 30 August 2010

President concludes visits to Laos and Cambodia

via Khmer NZ

August, 30 2010

HA NOI — President Nguyen Minh Triet returned home on Saturday after noon after wrapping up an official visit to Laos and a State-level visit to Cambodia.

Before his departure, the President attended and delivered a speech at the "Experience, potential and opportunities for Vietnamese investors in Cambodia " event in the country's capital city of Phnom Penh.

The function was attended by Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Economic and Financial Minister Keat Chhon, and more than 200 representatives from the two countries' business communities.

Representatives from Vietnamese businesses currently operating and investing in Cambodia presented the results of their investment projects in agriculture, mining, finance, health care, energy, light industry and hydroelectricity.

The representatives recommended that the two countries boost their economic, trade and investment ties on par with their current growing political ties.

The Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister told President Triet and the participants that Cambodia's economy was expected to boom this year with an estimated GDP growth rate of at least 5 per cent.

He said the young and dynamic population was one of his country's economic advantages. The Deputy Prime Minister also said the country had untapped potential, which provides Vietnamese investors with an ample amount of opportunities.

Noting the participants' recommendations and specific initiatives, President Triet said the two countries' economic, trade and investment ties had attained encouraging developments, but they had yet to match their potential.

Opportunities still lay ahead, President Triet said, as he expressed his hope that Vietnamese investors would go to Cambodia filled with a spirit of solidarity and friendship.

He urged Vietnamese investors to be responsible and cautious in order to avoid sparking problems that could potentially affect their partners' trust. The President also said the Vietnamese business community should participate actively in poverty reduction, cultural, health care and educational activities in Cambodia.

Later in the morning, President Triet visited the construction site of the Technology and Senior High School in Kampong Chnang, which is being built with VND10 billion (US$530,000) that Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh presented to the Cambodian Royal Fund during his visit to Cambodia in 2005. Once competed, the school will be named "the Viet Nam-Cambodia Friendship School ".

In an interview granted to the press, Deputy Foreign Minister Dao Viet Trung said the successful outcomes from the two visits would contribute greatly to strengthening and lifting Viet Nam's ties with Laos and Cambodia to a new height.

He said the leaders had affirmed the importance of their growing traditional friendship as a invaluable asset that should be preserved and handed down to future generations.

Trung reiterated that Viet Nam had placed importance on strengthening and enhancing its special solidarity, friendship and comprehensive co-operation with Laos and good neighbourliness, traditional friendship and all-sided co-operation with Cambodia.

In the future, Viet Nam would increase the exchange of visits with Laos and Cambodia at all levels to deepen their political ties to create a foundation for their co-operation in the investment and trade sectors.

Regarding co-operation with Laos, Trung said the two countries should quickly carry out their agreements in the fields of hydroelectricity and implement the construction of industrial plants and mining sites.

Viet Nam planned to increase its training of human resources for Laos to help the country industrialise, Trung noted.

In the short term, Trung said the two countries needed to work on their plan on enhancing the quality and effectiveness of Viet Nam-Laos co-operation in education and human resource development and carry out the projects to establish the Vietnamese language programme at the Lao National University and co-operative projects in education and training.

With respect to Cambodian relations, the two countries would strive to increase their two-way trade to $2 billion in 2010 and encourage the Vietnamese business community to invest in Cambodia, with emphasis on banking, rubber production, fertiliser production, agriculture, mining, oil and gas, telecommunications and hydroelectricity.

Viet Nam would boost its co-operation with and help Cambodia in other fields, such as agriculture, forestry, fisheries, transport and communications, education, health care and tourism, Trung said. — VNS

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