Deputy PM suggests Viet Nam, Sri Lanka open direct air routes

The meeting took place in Tokyo on May 26  as the pair went there fto attend the 28th International Conference on The Future of Asia.

Tran affirmed the Viet Nam's consistent policy of developing traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Sri Lanka.

He expressed his wish to promote the bilateral relations more effectively and practically, contributing to maintaining peace, stability and cooperation in the region.

The Deputy Prime Minister urged both sides to bolster collaboration across all sectors, including enhancing all-level delegation exchanges and people-to-people links and effective implementation of bilateral cooperation mechanisms, particularly the Joint Committee chaired by the two Foreign Ministries.

He called on the two nations to double effforts to raise the bilateral trade value to US$500 million as well as continue endorsing close coordination at international and regional forums, including the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.

For his part, Ranil Wickremesinghe pledged to strengthen Viet Nam-Sri Lanka relations, hoping that both sides would bolster collaboration in fields of economy, trade, investment, culture, tourism, climate change adaption and at multilateral mechanisms.

Sri Lanka expects to foster economic ties with ASEAN and join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), shared the President.

At the meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan Hosoda Hiroyuki, Tran recommend the Japanese House of Representatives increase delegation exchanges at all levels with Viet Nam, including between young and women parliamentarians.

Highlighting the importance of economic cooperation, he suggested Japan support the development of economic linkages between the two nations, assist Viet Nam in effectively taking part in new supply chains and advocate the implementation of new generation official development assistance (ODA) for Viet Nam.  

The Vietnamese leader recommended Japan encourage its small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in and boost technology transfer for Viet Nam.  

Hosoda Hiroyuki, for his side, highly valued the crucial role and active contributions to Japan's socioeconomic development by the nearly 500,000 Vietnamese people in the country, welcoming more Vietnamese coming to study and work in his country.

The same day, Tran had a meeting with three co-chairmen of the Viet Nam-Japan economic cooperation committee of the Japan Business Federation (KEIDANREN), namely senior advisor to Resonac Holdings Corporation Ichikawa Hideo, CEO of Sumitomo Corporation Hyodo Masayuki, and CEO of Sojitz Corporation Fujimoto Masayoshi.

The Deputy PM hailed contributions of KEIDANREN in promoting economic, trade and business connectivity between the two nations, especially via the Viet Nam-Japan Joint Initiative.

The Vietnamese Government always protects the legitimate rights of investors and harmonizes the interests of the State and businesses, noted Tran.

He took the occasion to propose KEIDANREN continue investing in Viet Nam and supporting the country in participating in the Japanese enterprises' supply chains in the region, especially in areas of renewable energy, climate change response, clean agriculture, digital transformation, green transition, semiconductors and agricultural product processing.

He suggested KEIDANREN help Viet Nam access capital sources for infrastructure development, the Green Innovation Fund, and the green finance sources of Japan./.