Viet Nam and UK experience growing ties

02/03/2008 -- 9:38 PM

Ha Noi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will visit the UK on March 4-5 at the invitation of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. New British Ambassador to Viet Nam Mark Kent said the visit will be a good chance for the two countries to strengthen their cooperation in many fields. Viet Nam and the UK established diplomatic ties on September 11, 1973, but real development just began from the mid-1990s. Recent years witnessed positive developments in the two countries’ ties, reflecting in the visits by President Tran Duc Luong in May 2004 and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Van An in March 2005. Currently, the UK ranks top among European Union donors to Viet Nam , providing about 100 million USD a year. New trade accords were inked, including an agreement on development partnership signed in September 2006 and an agreement on the establishment of a joint economic and trade committee in July 2007. Two-way trade between the two countries reached 1.9 billion USD in 2007. The UK has invested in 79 projects totalling 1.35 billion USD in Viet Nam , ranking behind France and the Netherlands in the list of EU investors and 12 th of 61 countries and territories investing in the country. British leading businesses are involved mostly in oil and gas, minerals exploration, finance and banking, telecommunication and aviation engineering. Education and training has been placed importance in the two countries’ cooperation with more British and Vietnamese universities joining hands in providing post-graduate training programmes. To date, 600 Vietnamese students have won scholarships offered by the British Government which has granted between 25-30 scholarships to Viet Nam annually. Apart from these fields, cooperation in defence, security, consular affairs, and tourism are being sped up by the two countries. -Enditem
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