President Nguyen Minh Triet will pay State visits to Italy

Hanoi (VNA) – President Nguyen Minh Triet will pay State visits to Italy ,
Spain and Slovakia from Dec. 9-18 to seek ways of boosting friendly and
cooperative relations with the European countries.

The visits will be made at the invitation of Italian President Giorgio Napolitano,
Spanish King Juan Carlos and Slovakian President Ivan Gasparovic.

During his visit in Italy, President Triet is scheduled to meet with Pope Benedict
XVI on Dec. 11.

Italy officially established diplomatic ties with Vietnam on March 23,
1973. Since then, the two countries have seen positive developments in their
bilateral relationship and exchanged regular visits at all levels.

Two-way trade has grown steadily in recent years, from just 320 million USD in
1996 to 1.67 billion USD in 2008.

Vietnam has mainly exported footwear, coffee, garments and seafood to Italy, and
imported machines, mechanical equipment, transport vehicles and leather materials.


Italy began its development cooperation with Vietnam in 1980s in the form of soft
loans, emergency relief aid and bilateral non-refundable aid or grants channelled
through international organisations such as the United Nations Industrial
Development Organisation (UNIDO) and the International Fund for Agricultural
Development (IFAD).

Italy now ranks 33rd amongst foreign countries and territories in terms of its
direct investment in Vietnam with 130 million USD invested in 31 projects,
focusing on leather shoes, construction, sanitation equipment, water heaters and
steel production.

The Piaggio Company has built a 30 million USD factory in the northern province of
Vinh Phuc to produce scooters under the brand name of Vespa, with a capacity of
100,000 units a year.

Spain - on the second leg of President Triet’s European tour - set up
diplomatic relations with Vietnam on May 23, 1977. Since 1990s, Spain has
supported Vietnam’s efforts to normalise and beef up ties with international
financial and monetary organisations and the European Union (EU).

Vietnam-Spain relations have developed fruitfully in many fields. In terms of
trade, Spain has seen rapid growth in two way trade with Vietnam, reaching 1.1
billion USD in 2008 from 470 million USD three years earlier. Vietnam’s exports
to Spain include seafood, coffee, garments and footwear.

In terms of investment, Spain now has a total of 12 valid projects in Vietnam with
a combined capital of 11 million USD, mainly in the areas of porcelain and ceramic
tiles, insulated boards and handbags.

Spain is the world’s 6th largest provider of official development assistance to
Vietnam, focusing on hunger eradication, poverty reduction, health care and
education.

Projects of note include general hospitals in the Central Highlands provinces of
Gia Lai and Lam Dong, the central provinces of Quang Nam and Quang Ngai, and
the northern province of Bac Ninh, each costing 2 million EUR.

Vietnam has so far disbursed 98 million USD out of 315 million USD worth of
Spanish ODA. In February 2008, the two nations signed an accord under which Spain
will provide an additional 65 million EUR (96 million USD) in ODA to support
Vietnam’s infrastructure, energy, communications and water management projects
from 2008 to 2010.

In June 2006, Vietnam and Spain also inked an agreement covering cultural,
educational and scientific cooperation, laying a foundation for the two sides to
organise various cultural activities.

The two countries have seen developments in education and training cooperation,
focusing on language training activities. In 2005, the Spanish Department was
established at the Hanoi University with Spain’s assistance in infrastructure
and teachers. At present, there are two Spanish teachers working in the
department. Between 1998 and 2008, Spain granted 140 scholarships to Vietnam
.

Since Vietnam and Slovakia set up their diplomatic ties on February 2, 1950, their
relationship has seen positive developments. The two sides attach importance to
their traditional friendship and regularly exchange high-ranking delegations.

However, economic relations between the two countries have yet to meet their
potential.

Vietnam mainly exports garments, electronic products, food, agricultural products,
seafood and footwear to Slovakia while importing chemicals, cattle-feed, plastic
materials, equipment and machines from the European market.

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Slovakia has increased rapidly over the past
years with 100 million USD in 2008, up 25 million USD against the previous year.


Slovakia’s financial group Jamp is planning to invest 150 million USD into
construction of an office building in Ho Chi Minh City while SES TLMACE, a Slovak
steam-furnace provider, will join hands with the Czech Skoda Praha Group to build
a 3 billion USD thermoelectric power plant in the Mekong Delta province of Tra
Vinh.

Since 2007, when Vietnam re-exported labourers to Slovakia, around 1,000
Vietnamese workers have been sent to work in the country, mainly in
foreign-invested factories.

Over the past 20 years, the relationship between Vietnam and Vatican has
seen steady progress. In addition to visits by the Vietnam Catholic Church to
address pastoral issues, the two sides have increased the exchange of delegations
at all levels. In February 2009, the two sides held the first meeting of the
Vietnam-Vatican Joint Working Group in Hanoi.-Enditem