President Tran Dai Quang and his spouse will pay a State visit to India from March 2-4 (Photo: VNA) New Delhi (VNA) – President Tran Dai Quang has said that Vietnam encourages moreinvestments from India so that the latter will become one of the top investorsin Vietnam.
He made the point inan interview he granted to “The Economic Times” newspaper of India on theoccasion of his upcoming State visit to India from March 2-4.
The following is thefull text of the interview:
“Q: Can youelaborate on growth in Indo-Vietnam defence partnership?
Defense and securityhave been the effective strategic areas of cooperation. India has activelysupported Vietnam in training, capacity building, defense technology transfer,and defense credit.
Q: What are Vietnam's plan to expand economic ties with India?
India continued to be among Vietnam’s top ten largest trading partners as thebilateral trade turnover has increased 16 percent per annum on average in thepast decade. A large number of major Indian firms have established and expandedtheir footprints in Vietnam.
India has given priority to Vietnam in development cooperation and educationand training, and paid attention to promoting the bilateral cooperation in scienceand technology, information and communication, energy, oil and gas, agricultureand tourism.
The cultural bonds and people-to-people exchanges between the two countrieshave also deepened. A large population of Vietnamese are watching Indian dramasand practicing yoga.
Apart from the bilateral frameworks, both countries have also forged closecollaboration and effective mutual support at multilateral fora, especially atthe United Nations. Vietnam welcomes India's efforts in and strong commitmentsto its "Act East" policy as well as to enhancing the connectivity anddevelopment cooperation with ASEAN. As the coordinator of ASEAN-India relationsfor 2015-2018, Vietnam has worked closely with India to drive the India-ASEANcooperation further forward.
Q: What are the news areas that Vietnam is seeking India investments?
Economic, investment and trade cooperation is one of the areas enjoying veryhigh growth recently, especially since the two countries established theStrategic Partnership in 2007 and upgraded it to Comprehensive StrategicPartnership in 2016. India has become one of Vietnam’s top ten tradingpartners; our bilateral trade turnover has expanded by 16 percent per annumover the last 10 years. India also ranked 28th among the 126 countries andterritories investing in Vietnam in 2017 with 168 projects and total registeredcapital of 756 million USD. Many major Indian corporations, including TATAGroup, ONGC and Essar are having sound business in Vietnam.
Vietnam encourages more investments from India so that the latter will becomeone of the top investors into Vietnam and the target of 15 billion USD inbilateral trade by 2020 can be realized. Renewable energy, manufacturing,information technology, infrastructure, to name a few are India's strength forwhich Vietnam has need. Both sides need to strengthen both bilateral andregional connectivity as well as infrastructural connectivity such as airlinks, roads and marine links, and digital connectivity.
Moreover, both sides need to establish business-to-business andbusiness-to-government dialogue mechanisms, and provide forums for sharinginterests, strategies and visions for development cooperation. Both countries’businesses also need to play a more active role in promoting cooperation.
Q: What is your opinion on India's Act East Policy?
Apart from the bilateral frameworks, both countries have also forged closecollaboration and effective mutual support at multilateral fora, especially atthe United Nations. Vietnam welcomes India's efforts in and strong commitmentsto its "Act East" policy as well as to enhancing the connectivity anddevelopment cooperation with ASEAN. As the coordinator of ASEAN-India relationsfor 2015-2018, Vietnam has worked closely with India to drive the India-ASEANcooperation further forward.
Q: India and Vietnam have just completed ten years of the Strategic Partnershipand one year of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. What is yourevaluation of India - Vietnam relations?
Vietnam and India have enjoyed a long-standing traditional friendship withvarious historical and cultural similarities, which was established byPresident Ho Chi Minh and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and nurtured bysuccessive generations of leaders and people of both countries. The two nationshave empathized and supported each other in their struggle for nationalindependence in the past as well as in the national construction anddevelopment today.
With trust and many shared interests, the two countries established theStrategic Partnership in July 2007 and upgraded it to Comprehensive StrategicPartnership in September 2016. This fine relationship has been concretized invarious fields, especially the pillars of politics, national defense, security,economy, trade, investment, culture, science and technology, education andtraining and people-to-people exchange.
The bilateral political relations have gone from strength to strength thanks toregular mutual visits at the high and lower levels through party-to-party,state-to-state, government-to-government, parliament-to-parliament as well aspeople-to-people exchanges. The General Secretary, President, Prime Ministerand President of the National Assembly of Vietnam have all visited India. Vietnamalso hosted the visits of the President, Vice President, Prime Minister,Speaker of the Lok Sabha and National Security Advisor of India. Practicalcommemorative activities have been hosted by both countries to celebrate the45th anniversary of diplomatic relations and 10 years of the StrategicPartnership.
Bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Action Plan 2017-2020, havebeen effectively implemented, thus facilitating the enhancement of thebilateral cooperation in various areas.”-VNA
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