Minister and Director of the Government Office Nguyen Xuan Phuc on March 9 wrapped up his visit to Japan at the invitation of the Japanese government.

This is the first visit to Japan by a politburo member of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) since the 11 th National Congress of the CPV, which aims to boost and deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries, as well as learn from Japanese experience in improving the government office’s staff skills.

During his visit, Phuc had meetings and working sessions with Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, Acting President of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) Yoshito Sengoku, leaders of the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism and representatives of the DJP Japan-Vietnam Friendly Parliamentarian League, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan-Vietnam Business Cooperation Forum.

He also met with Vietnam-Japan special friendly Ambassador Sugi Ryotaro and leaders of major Japanese enterprises, including Sumitomo, Hitachi and OJI.

At the meetings, Phuc informed his hosts of Vietnam’s important socio-economic achievements and expressed his thanks to the Japanese government and people for their assistance to Vietnam’s development process.

He also briefed them on the results of the 11th CPV Congress, stressing that the Party, State and government continue to follow the comprehensive renovation policy and attach important to developing strategic partnership with Japan, considering it one of the country’s top priorities in external affairs policy.

Phuc spoke highly of the comprehensive development of the Vietnam-Japan strategic partnership, especially after the Vietnam visit by Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan last October.

He also expressed wishes that bilateral ties would continue to be strengthened and the two countries would successfully implement cooperative projects, such as the building of a nuclear power plant in Binh Thuan, rare earth exploitation and production and other important infrastructure projects.

The minister asked Japan to cooperate and support Vietnam in human resources training, including those who are managers and leaders of the government office and other ministries and agencies.

The Japanese officials expressed their interests in further development of the strategic partnership with Vietnam and affirmed commitments of implementing important infrastructure projects and increasing cooperation in human resources training with the Southeast Asian country.

At a banquet on March 8, Acting DPJ President Sengoku conveyed a message of greetings from PM Kan to Minister Phuc, which confirmed Japan’s efforts to implement a joint agreement on building a nuclear power plant and cooperating in rare earth exploitation in Vietnam as agreed by the two PMs at their talks in Hanoi in October, 2010.