NEWS

Vietnam is planning to supply raw products for processing in Bulgaria and a follow-up export to the European markets

Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev was welcomed by his Vietnamese counterpart Truong Tan Sang at an official ceremony in the Presidential Palace in Hanoi. President Rosen Plevneliev’s state visit in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam started with official talks held between the two Heads of State.

In joint statements, the two Presidents said that the top-level cooperation between Bulgaria and Vietnam is traditionally good. During their talks, Rosen Plevneliev and Truong Tan Sang discussed concrete measures for strengthening the bi-lateral and multi-lateral cooperation.

Vietnam is planning to supply raw products for processing in Bulgaria and a follow-up export to the European markets, it became clear after the talks between the two Presidents. The Heads of State announced a Joint Declaration for Strategic Partnership by implementing a new Model for economic cooperation, based on Bulgaria’s positioning as a transit country for the processing and export of Vietnamese products and services for the European Union and Southeast Asia. To this effect, our country offers the already built industrial zones, which would provide opportunities for the processing and export under the best possible conditions.

“These strategic documents are an expression of the political will for entering a new stage in the development of our bi-lateral relations,” the Bulgarian president said. “We would like Vietnam to be a door for the goods produced by Bulgaria and the EU to enter Southeast Asia with a population standing at 660 million. We will also put efforts into ensuring that Bulgaria, for its part, becomes a door for the products produced by Vietnam to enter the European market with a population standing at 500 million,” Rosen Plevneliev said and defined as a priority developing the economic and commercial relations between the two friendly countries. Therefore within the President’s state visit, a second office of the Bulgarian service on trade and economic issues is to be opened in Ho Shi Min.

Bulgarian companies have voiced their concrete investment interest in Vietnam, President Plevneliev further said. These include investments in building ecological installations for recycling produced oils, installations for wine production, as well as joint productions in the pharmacy sectors, agriculture and the production of foods, the energy sector, defense industry, chemical and textile industry, tobacco industry and infrastructure. Bulgarian companies have also voiced their readiness to trade and offer their products for re-export or for the joint production of wine, foods, ethereal oils, Rosen Plevneliev said.

The President further added that the cooperation in the defense sector is also expected to assume concrete proportions, by developing programs for the joint maintenance of military equipment, the training of staff, management of crises, as well as the joint training of peacekeeping forces.

Rosen Plevneliev defined as “very promising”  the memorandums signed in the presence of the two heads of state, namely the Memorandum of Cooperation between the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology and the Framework Agreement on bi-lateral scientific and technological cooperation between the Institute of Metal Science, Equipment and Technologies With Hydroaerodynamics Center at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Shipbuilding Sciences and Technologies at the Vietnamese Ministry of Communication and Transport . “This transfer of technologies and knowledge will definitely give birth to many joint productions,” the President said.

Bulgaria has always supported Vietnam on its road to independence and modernization, the Bulgarian President further added. He said that Bulgarian specialists have built more than 120 sites in Vietnam and over 30 thousand Vietnamese citizens have studied and worked in Bulgaria.

The Bulgarian Head of State’s visit in Hanoi contributes to strengthening the traditional relations and good cooperation between the two friendly countries, which is developing in a positive direction in many sectors and on all levels, the President of Vietnam Truong Tan Sang said. We are seeking ways to encourage our cooperation in the spheres of economy, education and training, culture, tourism, security and defense, the Vietnamese Head of State said.

The two presidents shared the opinion that in order to increase the efficiency of the investments cooperation, favorable conditions for the entrepreneurs and the investors should be created and the markets in the priority sectors for the two countries should be researched. The Vietnamese Head of State highlighted the development of infrastructure, planning, urban development and the public transport systems, energy efficiency, environment protection, food processing among them.

The new model for economic cooperation will raise the bi-lateral relations to the level of strategic partnership in the future and to this effect the institutions in the two countries and the representatives of the different sectors will work for specifying the applicability of the model, President Truong Tan Sang further added. He expressed his conviction that the model will boost the efficiency of the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries.

The Presidents of Bulgaria and Vietnam emphasized the good coordination and common positions of the two countries on the international level. Rosen Plevneliev recalled that Bulgaria is the third country to approve the Framework Agreement on Comprehensive Partnership and Cooperation between the EU and Vietnam and assured that our country will be an engine for signing a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and the Asian country soon.

On the first day of his state visit to Vietnam, President Rosen Plevneliev will hold meetings with Nguyen Phu Trong, chair of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Nguyen Sinh Hung, chair of the National Assembly of Vietnam and with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.