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Dacian Ciolos, the first Romanian PM paying an official visit to Vietnam in 21 years
Romania's Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Tuesday discussed in Hanoi resuming cooperation between the two countries, with Ciolos pointing to an impressive economic development of Vietnam over the past years.
"Our traditional relations are well known. Romania and Vietnam have been cooperating for 66 years and we want, in the years to come, to strengthen these relationships based on friendship starting also from the pragmatism and realism of the world we are living in. Vietnam has been witnessing impressive economic development over the past years, and Romania wants Vietnam to be its privileged partner in this part of Asia. This is one of the reasons we are here," Ciolos told a meeting of Romanian and Vietnamese officials, as seen in a video footage posited on the website of the Romanian Government.
At the end of the meeting, the two heads of government gave a joint news statement, with the Vietnamese prime minister announcing that agreement was reached over mutually favoring companies and investors from the two countries.
"We have agreed to favor the companies and investors of the two countries to conclude partnerships in areas where the two countries have complementary advantages, such as oil and gas, electricity, shipbuilding, railways, agriculture and workforce," said Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
In his turn, Ciolos talked about the resumption of bilateral cooperation, given that there are 3,200 alumni of Romanian faculties occupying various positions in administration and the economy.
"I am glad to have this opportunity today, 21 years since a Romanian prime minister visited Vietnam, to resume dialogue between our governments and intensify it, given that there have been close cooperation ties for about 66 years. Vietnam has traditional ties with Romania, is a partner to Romania. We have seen, over the past years, impressive developments in Vietnam as far as economic growth is concerned. Vietnam is a modern country, increasingly more open to the world, with impressive economic development. And that is not the result of just the 66 years of diplomatic ties between Romania and Vietnam, but also because 3,200 Vietnamese people have attended school in Romania, know Romania, and many of them are holding important positions in the government and economy of Vietnam, all this provides premises for us to resume cooperation relations between our two countries to the next level," said Ciolos.
Part of the visit, official documents were signed in the presence of the two prime ministers. Romania's Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu and his Vietnamese counterpart signed a cooperation agreement in education and training between Romania's Ministry of Education and Vietnam's Ministry of Education and Professional Training for 2016-2020.
The two foreign ministers also signed a cultural cooperation programme between Romania's Ministry of Culture and Vietnam's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Also on Tuesday, a cooperation memorandum was signed between Romania's Transelectrica electricity transmission corporation and VietNam Electricity.
Vietnam and Romania established diplomatic ties 66 years ago.
In 2015, bilateral trade revenue reached some 175.6 million U.S. dollars, compared to over 10 million U.S. dollars during 1995-1999 period, statistics by Vietnam's state-run news agency VNA showed.
In the first four months of 2016, bilateral trade revenue between Vietnam and Romania hit over 46 million U.S. dollars. Vietnam mainly exported coffee, seafood, garment, footwear, electronic products and computers to Romania while importing wheat flour, tools and accessories, chemicals, steel material among others from the European country.
Ciolos on Monday started an Asian tour with an official visit to Vietnam through July 14, while on July 15-16 he will be in Ulan Bator, Mongolia, to attend the 11th Europe-Asia Meeting.