Pretoria (VNA) - A delegation of the northern province of Hai Duong led by Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Tran Duc Thang paid a working visit to South Africa from June 14-18 to seek ways to promote cooperation and investment.

During their stay, the delegation had working sessions with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, local businesses, and officials of Vietnam's representative agencies in the host country.

At the meeting with the ANC delegation, Thang briefed his hosts about Vietnam's socio-economic achievements and the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)'s major policies and orientations on the Party building and socio-economic development leadership.

Alvin Botes, member of the ANC Central Committee and Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, congratulated the CPV's achievements gained in recent years, especially in socio-economic development and people's life quality improvement.

He also shared the ANC's Party building and policy on leadership over national development, praising the close-knit comradeship and fruitful cooperation programmes between the ANC and CPV as well as between the two countries.

The two sides agreed to report to leaders of the two parties and states to implement the agreed diplomatic and cooperation programmes as soon as possible.

In his remarks at an investment promotion conference that drew nearly 50 representatives of local businesses, Thang presented an overview of Hai Duong's socio-economic situation, the areas it is attracting investment to, and its potential for partnerships with South African firms in the fields of industry, agriculture and services.

He pledged to create the best possible conditions for South African businesses to invest in the province.

Neil Pollock, Vice President of the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said he expects that local businesses will soon invest in Hai Duong and many from Vietnam will do the same in his country.

The chamber will serve as a bridge helping carry out the investment and trade activities agreed on at the conference.

At a working session with the South African Fruit Import-Export Association in Cape Town, Thang asked the two countries' businesses to coordinate closely with each other to bring Vietnamese and South Arican fruits to each other's consumers. He also suggested local companies invest in fruit preservation and processing systems and build a fruit distribution centre in Hai Duong.

On June 15, the Hai Duong delegation visited and had a meeting with the Embassy and representative agencies of Vietnam in South Africa.

Last year, South Africa was the second large🌄st trading pa🦋rtner and export market of Vietnam in Africa. Bilateral trade approximated 1.2 billion USD, with Vietnam posting a trade surplus of nearly 340 million USD, statistics showed./.