President
meets overseas Vietnamese in Washington
(22-06-2007)
 |
President Nguyen Minh
Triet and his wife arrive at Andrew Airport In Washington DC. —VNA/VNS
Photo Nguyen Khang |
Washington
— President Nguyen Minh Triet arrived in Washington DC on Wednesday to
continue his tour of the US and meet with representatives of the Vietnamese
community.
The meeting was part of
the President’s continuing tour of the US, and provided the opportunity for
Triet to update members of the Vietnamese community in the US on recent
developments in Viet Nam.
The President stressed the
significance of the first official visit to the US by a president of an
independent and reunified Viet Nam, saying that the visit would help promote
friendly and co-operative relations between Viet Nam and the US, and affirm Viet
Nam’s rising prestige in the regional and international arenas.
President Triet also
affirmed that the Vietnamese Party and State always considered overseas
Vietnamese an integral part of multi-ethnic Viet Nam.
He said that for Viet Nam
to rise to its current position, many generations of Vietnamese, regardless of
whether they were in or outside the country, had made unceasing efforts to
contribute to the cause of national construction and defence, especially to
reforms during the past 20 years.
The President talked with
overseas Vietnamese and answered their questions on life in the homeland and on
the Party and State’s policies on helping overseas Vietnamese contribute to
the development of Viet Nam.
The State leader called on
overseas Vietnamese to maintain close ties with the home country and pass the
Vietnamese culture and language onto young generations.
Meeting with staff at the
Vietnamese embassy in the US capital, President Triet granted a Labour Order,
Second Class to Vietnamese Ambassador to the US Nguyen Tam Chien, and a Labour
Order, First Class to the staff of the Vietnamese Embassy in the US for their
contributions to boosting friendship between Viet Nam and the US.
Before leaving for
Washington on Wednesday, President Triet and his delegation attended a banquet,
organised by the Asia Foundation, and met with representatives from different
social circles in New York.
President Triet stressed
that in spite of the geographical distance, both Viet Nam and the US want to
build a friendly and co-operative relationship. Since normalisation, Viet Nam-US
bilateral relations had grown rapidly, with bilateral co-operation in many areas
being expanded, he said.
The same day, President
Triet attended a lecture on education at Harvard University. Addressing the
audience at the lecture, the President said the Vietnamese Party and State paid
special attention to education and called on US universities to promote
co-operation with Vietnamese universities.
Presidential
lunch
The US-ASEAN Business
Council and the US Chamber of Commerce were expected to host President Triet and
his delegation at a luncheon attended by representatives from the government,
and media yesterday.
The US-ASEAN Business
Council’s president, Matthew Daley, said the council would talk about shared
goals of increasing US investment and trade with Viet Nam.
Joint
commission
A two-day annual meeting
of the Viet Nam-US Joint Commission on Economic and Trade Development began in
Washington on Monday. The meeting was held within the framework of the Viet
Nam-US Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA) with the aim of reviewing the countries’
co-operation over the past five years.
The delegation from Viet
Nam was headed by Bui Huy Hung, director of the International Relations
Department under the Governmental Office, with the participation of
representatives from the Ministries of Trade, Planning and Investment, Foreign
Affairs, Finance, Post and Telematic, Justice, Science and Technology, Culture
and Information, and Agriculture and Rural Development.
The US delegation was led
by Babara Weisel, assistant to the United States Trade Representative (USTR),
with representatives from the Department of Justice, Department of State,
Department of Commerce, Treasury and the Federal Reserve Department (FED).
The two sides reviewed
bilateral economic, trade and investment in 2006 and 2007 period as well as the
five-year (2001-06) implementation of the BTA, including areas such as trade in
goods, intellectual property rights, services, investment and the improvement of
the legal environment in Viet Nam in line with the market economy and BTA
commitments.
On the sidelines of the
main meeting at the USTR headquarters, the two sides held sub-meetings
concerning the US monitoring mechanism on garments and textiles imports from
Viet Nam and co-operative measures to prevent bilateral trade disputes with the
US Department of Commerce.
Legal regulations
concerning anti-money laundering with the US Treasury and Department of Justice,
facilitation for Vietnamese commercial banks to open representative offices in
the US with FED and the implementation of commitments on intellectual property
rights made in Ha Noi with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) were also
high on the agenda of the sub-meetings.
After the meeting, the two
sides were of the opinion that the BTA has proved to be a successful agreement
between Viet Nam and the US. Through the BTA implementation, bilateral trade
turnover between the two countries reached US$9.7 billion in 2006, an eight-fold
increase over the five years before the BTA.
y the end of 2006, US
investment in Viet Nam amounted to $4.5 billion, including investment capital
from other countries, bringing the world’s largest economy to sixth among 75
countries and territories investing in Viet Nam.
They agreed that the
implementation of the BTA and technical assistance from the US Agency of
International Development have been helpful to Viet Nam in building many
important legal documents to fall into line with the country’s BTA
commitments.
Cultural
exhibition
An exhibition on
contemporary Vietnamese culture opened in Washington DC on June 20 to mark
President Triet’s visit.
The installation
exhibition is the first of its kind outside Viet Nam that showcases water
puppetry, painting, photography and music.
The five-day event is
taking place at the Ronald Reagan Building and the International Trade Centre.
— VNS