Ambassador to Sweden Tran Van Tuan (fourth, right), and officials of the Vietnamese Embassy in Sweden at a ceremony to present credentials to the Swedish King (Photo: VNA) Firstly, the two sides boast high collaboration potential inclimate change and environmental protection, as Sweden is a world leader in the field and Vietnam one of the countries hardest hit by climatechange, the diplomat said in an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency on theoccasion of the 55th anniversary of the Vietnam-Sweden diplomaticrelations.
Secondly, science-technology is also a promising area forbilateral cooperation, especially in the fields where Sweden has a lot ofexperience such as carbon capture technology and waste treatment, digitaltransformation, energy transformation, financial management, and public healthcare, he said. And
Thirdly, the two countries have high potential in labour, trade and investmentpartnership, held the ambassador, explaining that with a population of about100 million, stable political situation and impressive growth rate, Vietnam hasbeen an attractive and promising market for Swedish businesses.
During a meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham MinhChinh on the sidelines of the 28th UN Climate Change Conference(COP28) in the UAE, Swedish PM Ulf Kristersson highly valued Vietnam’s stanceon peaceful settlement of international disputes, and expressed his belief that the country will continue to make positive contributions to promoting ASEAN’scentral role and dealing with common problems of the international community.
Tuan said he believes that with high mutual political trust,Vietnam and Sweden will continue to effectively coordinate at multilateralforums, especially in coping with global issues.
Highlighting achievements of the Vietnam-Sweden cooperationover the past 55 years, Tuan said that the two countries have enjoyed fruitfulpartnership in all fields.
Along with strong political trust and friendship, Sweden andVietnam have shared sound economic cooperation, he said, noting that Sweden wasthe biggest North European provider of non-refundable aid to Vietnam in the 1967-2013period. Since late 2013, the two sides switched their relations to win-win partnership.
Two-way trade hit 1.5 billion USD in 2022, and 1.2 billion USD in the first 11months of 2023 despite impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data from StatisticsSweden (SCB) released in December 2023 showed that Sweden was Vietnam's largesttrading partner in North Europe and Vietnam Sweden's largest importpartner in Southeast Asia.
At the same time, Sweden helped Vietnam train many experts and engineers in thefields of forestry, paper, energy, biology, medicine, and journalism in the pastthrough the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. Meanwhile,cultural and art exchange activities between the two sides have also beenfostered.
However, Ambassador Tuan held that the partnership between Vietnam and Swedenin some areas have been modest, noting that as of June 2023, Swedish firms hadinvested 680.49 million USD in Vietnam.
The diplomat said that in the time to come, the Vietnamese Embassy in Swedenwill focus on conducting activities to foster bilateral cooperation inpolitics, diplomacy, trade, investment, and science and technology.
On the occasion of the 55th anniversary ofbilateral diplomatic ties, the embassy will organise some activities to promoteVietnam’s culture, trade and tourism in Sweden, while assisting the signing ofcooperation agreements between agencies of the two countries and providingfavourable conditions for the businesses of the two sides to explore each other’smarket.
Along with assisting Vietnamese and Swedish firms tostrengthen import-export activities between the two countries, the embassy willadvocate for Sweden to open its door for highly qualified Vietnamese workersto work in the European country, especially in the fields of informationtechnology, education, health care, and elderly care.
The embassy is working to hasten the opening of a direct airroute and a direct maritime route between the two countries, the diplomat said,adding that it will strengthen cultural diplomacy, people diplomacy and education-training cooperation between the two countries./.
VNA
