Viet Nam, Pakistan should set ambitous goal of raising two-way trade to US$10 bln

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made the above statement during his meeting with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Saudi Arabia's Riyadh on October 30.

Sharif took the occasion to express his sympathies over the death of former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong.

He expressed his admiration for Viet Nam, saying the Southeast Asian country is a good example of national liberation in the past and for current national construction and development.

Pham, for his part, conveyed the invitations of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee To Lam, President Luong Cuong, and Chairman of the National Assembly Tran Thanh Man to Pakistani leaders to visit Viet Nam. He also invited Prime Minister Sharif to visit Viet Nam soon.

Pham called for better utilizing the great trade potential between the two countries by further opening their markets and organizing investment and tourism forums.

The two leaders agreed to increase the exchange of delegations in a bid to promote cooperation in new domains such as digital transformation, green transition, and circular economy.

On the occasion, both sides also exchanged views and discussed measures to further strengthen coordination at international and multilateral forums for practical benefits of the two countries and for peace, cooperation and development in the region and the world.

Earlier the same day, Pham met with Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Saudi Fund for Development (SFD) Sultan Al-Marshad, during which the former thanked the SFD for having provided around US$160 million in concessional loans to 12 projects on education, healthcare, and rural transport development in Viet Nam.

He called on the SFD to promote both direct and indirect investments in strategic transport infrastructure development such as seaports, transit airports, high-speed railways and other fields like digital transformation, green transition, climate change, solar and wind power projects, data centers, liquefied national gas, innovation, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and Internet of Things.

CEO Sultan Al-Marshad promised to increase investments in a bid to turn the SFD into a strategic partner of the Southeast Asian country.

He also said he will send a delegation to Viet Nam in December this year to explore concrete investment opportunities./.