PM Nguyen Tan Dung (right) receives Chinese Politburo Standing Committee member and Vice Premier of China Zhang Gaoli.
China is willing to extend the scope of bilateral cooperation as well as increase the import of Vietnamese farm produce and competitive goods, Zhong emphatically stated.
The Chinese deputy minister noted that two-way trade increased by 27% to US$83.6 billion last year, an eleven-fold increase in comparison with the two-way trade figure ten years ago. In the first half of this year, the figure reached US$42.29 billion, up 16.6% year-on-year.
He noted that China has been the largest trade partner of Vietnam for 11 years in a row while Vietnam has become the second largest trade partner of China in the ASEAN.
By the end of 2014, total Chinese investment in Vietnam hit US$8 billion, mostly in the areas of electricity, steel, textiles, light industry and agriculture.
He cited examples of several key Chinese-investment projects in electricity, transport, metallurgy and chemicals currently underway in Vietnam, including the Vinh Tan 1 thermal power plant under the build-operate-transfer model and the Cat Linh-Ha Dong elevated railway, among others.
On the tourism front, China has been the largest source of travellers to Vietnam over the past 15 years, with 1.95 million arrivals in Vietnam in 2014, while 1.71 million Vietnamese visited China the same year, contributing to raising mutual understanding and fostering traditional friendship between the two countries.
Also at the event, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China Hu Zucai suggested the two countries continue to co-operate in infrastructure, trade and investment, as well as boost cultural, academic and youth exchanges.
Hu informed that the commission, together with the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment, has developed a mechanism designed to foster a joint working group on overland infrastructure.
According to him, there remains immense room for co-ordinating in energy and machinery manufacturing.
