Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his spouse, and the high-ranking delegation of Vietnam visited Prahova county on January 21 as part of his official visit to Romania. VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

PRAHOVA — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính, his spouse, and the high-ranking delegation of Việt Nam visited Prahova county on January 21 as part of his official visit to Romania.

Introducing the county’s economic potential and opportunities of cooperation with Việt Nam, officials of the Romanian Government, Prahova, and the county’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry said Prahova, a leading industrial, oil and gas, tourism, and cultural hub of Romania, established the twin relationship with Việt Nam’s Hòa Bình Province in 2019. It is home to the first oil refinery of Romania and the Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti, which has long-standing cooperation with the Southeast Asian nation and has considerably contributed to bilateral oil and gas partnerships.

Romanian officials said Việt Nam has posted fast growth for years, signed many free trade agreements, and made good use of chances generated by global economic and political changes.

Perceiving that Việt Nam will be the next “tiger” of Asia, they called on businesses of Romania and Prahova to grasp opportunities of investment cooperation with the Southeast Asian country. In return, Romania can act as a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter the European market with a combined population of 500 million.

PM Chính appreciated Romania’s assistance and support for Việt Nam, saying he is impressed with Prahova’s development, particularly in IT application, digital transformation, public service management, and social security ensuring.

He emphasised achievements in the cooperation in manpower training for the oil and gas industry, a young sector but also a substantial contributor to Việt Nam’s development over the nearly 40 years of reforms.

There remains huge potential for locality-to-locality cooperation, which has an important role to play in the two countries’ relations, he noted, adding that some localities of Việt Nam and Romania are set to sign cooperation memoranda during his visit.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the meeting with Prahova county’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Việt Nam is ready to strengthen ties with Romania, including Prahova, renew old cooperation impetuses, and promote new ones, especially in emerging areas and big trends of the world that both sides have demand for such as digital economy, green economy, circular economy, and sharing economy, the PM stated.

He pointed out that the two economies boast many complementary advantages, noting as Việt Nam has a population of about 100 million while Romania about 23 million, labour could be a new cooperation impulse. Besides, Việt Nam will continue investing in and expanding major oil and gas projects, so the two sides can foster partnerships in investment, technology transfer, and manpower training.

Việt Nam and Romania have big opportunities and wishes for cooperation. The largest obstacle to their ties now is geographical distance, but it could be addressed by stepping up digital transformation and e-commerce and increasing authorities’ assistance for businesses, according to the leader.

During the trip, PM Chính is scheduled to have meetings with top leaders of Romania to identify orientations and measures for augmenting bilateral ties in different fields, including economy, trade, and investment.

He voiced his hope that the two countries’ businesses and localities will cooperate with each other to help realise the common vision and targets, pledging the best possible conditions for their exchanges, partnerships, and cooperation. VNS