Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ (r) receives UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Edward Vaizey in Hà Nội on Friday. — Photo baoquocte.vn

HÀ NỘI — The UK will provide non-refundable aid sourced from the Commonwealth Foundation to help the Vietnamese Construction Ministry to build smart buildings and implement smart city projects, said the UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Edward Vaizey.

Vaizey told Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ in Hà Nội on Friday that the UK Government attached importance to Việt Nam’s role in co-operation and development.

The UK wished to help improve economic skills for Vietnamese people, assist the country in raising transparent administration and participate in infrastructure development using high technologies, he said.

The UK was in the midst of withdrawing from the European Union. However, the benefits brought about by the EU-Việt Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to Việt Nam and the UK should be maintained, he said.

The UK was ready to push ahead with commitments between the EU and Việt Nam as the country was still an EU member, the envoy said.

He thanked the Vietnamese Government for its support to the UK in accessing the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

For his part, Deputy PM Huệ affirmed that the strategic partnership between Việt Nam and the UK was developing fruitfully.

The official also thanked the UK Government for its assistance to Việt Nam in signing and ratifying the EVFTA, and promised that the Vietnamese Government always backed and stood ready to help the UK join the CPTPP.

Huệ urged the two countries to enhance their bilateral trade ties as two-way trade value stood at only over US$6.1 billion in 2017, and called on the UK to expand its investment in Việt Nam in finance-banking given its investment capital in the country was only $3.7 billion.

Vietnamese ministries and agencies were willing to remove difficulties facing UK investors in Việt Nam, Huệ said, expressing his hope for more support from the Commonwealth Foundation to realise projects in Việt Nam and for Vietnamese goods to penetrate further into the M&S supermarket chain. — VNS