THE HAGUE — National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân advocated stronger co-operation between Việt Nam and the Netherlands to develop seaports.

She said this at a reception for Rene Van Der Plas, Director of the Port of Rotterdam International (PORint) in The Hague on Monday.

During the reception, the Vietnamese legislator affirmed that her ongoing official visit to the Netherlands was aimed at promoting and further deepening the friendship and cooperation between the two nations in general and their parliaments in particular.

She also highlighted the fruitful bilateral relations across fields over the last 45 years as well as ceaselessly reinforced political trust.

Việt Nam and the Netherlands are now important economic and trade partners.

Việt Nam needed to learn from PORint’s experience in optimising the production and business process and distributing goods globally, in close connection with the science and technology revolution in the transport and IT sectors, Ngân said.

Plas too briefed Ngân on PORint, one of the largest in Europe and in the world, saying it was a modern operation and management model, especially in creating added value processes, providing warehouses and distributing goods.

The port has worked as a trans-shipment port for some 460 million tonnes of goods, ranking eighth among the largest ports in the world, he said. Plas added that PORint had attracted investment from many leading global enterprises.

He further said PORint was connected to industrial parks and had great potential to reach out to production and consumption markets.

Ngân asked Plas to support HCM City and other Vietnamese localities in planning, building and managing port infrastructure, maritime training, logistics services, flood tides and urban flood prevention.

While lauding the Dutch government–funded International Business Programme on cooperation between Việt Nam and the Netherlands in sea, port and inland waterways, Ngân expressed her belief that the programme would contribute to creating a smooth transport corridor in the multi-mode transport connection system for Việt Nam’s Mekong Delta region and HCM City. — VNS