Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Phung Quoc Hien (L) and President of the Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico (Photo: VNA) Rome (VNA) – Vice Chairman of theNational Assembly (NA) of Vietnam Phung Quoc Hien visited the Chamber ofDeputies of Italy on September 24 as part of his ongoing working trip to theEuropean country.
At his meeting with President of the Chamber ofDeputies Roberto Fico, Hien said the Vietnamese NA wants to further strengthenthe strategic partnership between Vietnam and Italy.
Vietnam attaches great importance to theexchange of delegations, especially high-level ones between the two countriesand parliaments, Hien said, adding that the Southeast Asian country is ready toshare experience and coordinate closely with Italy at both regional andinternational forums.
He thanked the Italian parliament and governmentfor creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Italy to settledown and integrate into the host society.
He noted that two-way trade has increasedsteadily in recent years, but has yet to match the potential and strength ofthe two economies.
The NA Vice Chairman proposed Italian leaderssupport the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) andInvestment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), so as to bring Vietnam-Italy trade to6 billion USD by 2020 and 10 billion USD in the following years as targeted bytheir leaders.
He extended an invitation from NA ChairwomanNguyen Thi Kim Ngan to Roberto Fico to visit Vietnam soon. The host acceptedthe invitation with pleasure.
During his talks with Vice President of theChamber of Deputies Ettore Rosato, Hien said his current visit to Italy is topromote and deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries as wellas the cooperative ties between the two parliaments.
At the talks between Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Phung Quoc Hien and Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies Ettore Rosato (Photo: VNA) Vietnam is keen to step up cooperation withItaly in tourism and culture, especially the conservation and promotion of thevalue of heritage sites such as Hoi An ancient city, Hue imperial city, andHanoi Old Quarter, as well as in education, training, science-technology,locality-to-locality cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges, Hien said.
He asked the two sides to increase high-leveldelegation exchanges and meetings between parliamentarians in addition tosharing experience in law-building and supervision in respectivecountries.
He suggested intensifying coordination to pushthe implementation of cooperation agreements signed between the two governmentsand strategic cooperation projects.
The two sides should enhance coordination andmutual support at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-ParliamentaryUnion (IPU) and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP).
The host and guest agreed that it is necessaryto ensure security, safety and freedom of navigation in the East Sea and settledisputes via peaceful means in line with international law, especially the 1982United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and theDeclaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and work towards aCode of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
Ettore Rosato hoped the relations betweenVietnam and Italy will be further deepened.
He shared Vietnam’s concerns in water resourcesmanagement, saying the international community should have measures to requireupstream countries to ensure water security for downstream countries.
Italy has many businesses with rich experiencein water management and they could cooperate with Vietnam, he added.
He said he backs the ratification of the EVFTAand EVIPA to create a legal foundation for the economic, trade and investmentcooperation between Vietnam and Italy./.
VNA
