Increasing the economic, trade and investment exchange between Bulgaria and Vietnam is a common priority and the institutions in the two countries are ready to support the business initiatives. This was the common stance shared by President Rumen Radev and Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who held a meeting today in Tokyo. The two are representing their countries at the enthronement ceremony of the new Emperor of Japan, Naruhito.
The forthcoming meeting of the Joint committee for trade and scientific and technological cooperation between Bulgaria and Vietnam in November 2019 in Sofia is a good reason to conduct bilateral business forums and outline concrete projects of mutual interest, Rumen Radev emphasized. The Head of State reiterated the invitation to his Vietnamese counterpart President Nguyen Phu Trong to visit our country together with a strong business delegation.
The trust between Bulgaria and Vietnam and the contacts among the people are the greatest capital in bilateral relations, which should be invested not only in increasing trade but also in establishing joint ventures, with the support of the institutions, to export to the Asian markets and within the common European market, the President suggested. In Rumen Radev’s opinion, reaffirming Bulgaria as a regional hub for the development of information technologies in Southeastern Europe, and also the traditions in the sphere of electronics, pharmacy and medicine also create conditions for implementing joint projects. The two shared the stance that the trade worth about 100 million $US annually is below the two countries’ potential.
“Bulgaria and Vietnam have the enormous advantage that the two peoples need not get to know each other for the first time and are connected by relations of friendship and trust,” Rumen Radev further emphasized. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, for his part, highlighted the excellent bilateral cooperation in the sphere of education and science in the recent past – 30,000 Vietnamese citizens and he himself have taken their university degree and have acquired professional qualification or have specialized in Bulgaria, and he called for resuming the active partnership in these spheres.
The cooperation in the sphere of defense, the maintenance of armament and technology and also in the sphere of military education, were outlined as particularly promising spheres in bilateral relations.
Nguyen Xuan Phuc told the Head of State that as Chair of ASEAN in 2020, Vietnam will work to ensure a follow-up expansion of the ties and the economic partnership between Bulgaria and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Bulgaria and Vietnam enjoy an excellent cooperation within international organizations and will continue their active dialogue when adopting and defending common stances, it further emerged at the meeting between President Rumen Radev and Prime Minister of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phuc in Tokyo.