Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam wants tostrengthen its friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Spain, animportant member of the European Union (EU), said President Tran Dai Quang at areception for outgoing Spanish Ambassador to Vietnam Alfonso Tena Garcia inHanoi on March 3.

He expressed his pleasure at the positivedevelopment of the bilateral strategic partnership and recognised the ambassador’sremarkable contributions to the enhancement of the two countries’ relationsduring his working tenure.

Two-way trade has been developing in recentyears with an average annual growth of 15 percent in recent years, he noted.

Spain is running 35 projects worth 36 million USD in Vietnam. However, thefigure is still modest and yet to match the potential and strength of Spain –the fourth biggest economy in the EU.

The President suggested the two sides increaseall-level delegation exchanges and implement activities to celebrate the 40thanniversary of diplomatic ties in 2017. 

He also took the occasion to invite the SpanishKing to visit Vietnam soon. 

Vietnam and Spain should build an actionprogramme as the foundation for their cooperation in the years to come, hesaid, adding prioritised areas include renewable energy, infrastructurebuilding, tourism, and hi-tech ecological agriculture.

He called on the two nations to continue closecoordination at international forums, especially the United Nations,Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and ASEAN-EU.

He suggested Spain support Vietnam in its runfor the post as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2020 –2021 tenure, and Vietnamese Ambassador Pham Sanh Chau to be the UNESCO DirectorGeneral for the 2017 – 2021 term.

President Quang hoped the ambassador, in his newposition, will always be a close friend of Vietnam as well as a bridge topromote the bilateral friendship and multi-dimensional cooperation.

The Spanish diplomat said during his four-yearworking tenure in Vietnam, he recognised that Vietnam has a lot of potential toreap more successes in the cause of national building and development in thetime ahead.

He added that Spain always supports Vietnam inrunning for important positions at international forums and organisations.

The enforcement of the Vietnam – EU Free TradeAgreement will create a driving force for the bilateral trade, which hasenjoyed high growth in recent years, he said.

He evaluated that the investment environment inVietnam is favourable for investors, and believed that there will be many newprojects run by Spanish businesses in the Southeast Asian country.-VNA