Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc receives President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz Canel Bermudez in Hà Nội yesterday. – VNA/VNS Photo Thống Nhất

HÀ NỘI – Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc and President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz Canel Bermudez agreed to make it easier for business partnerships and investment in new fields like telecommunications, pharmaceuticals, banking and biotechnology.

The agreement was made during the leaders’ meeting in Hà Nội yesterday.

PM Phúc welcomed the first visit by Bermudez as President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba and said he believed the visit would help cement the special traditional relations between Việt Nam and Cuba.

The Cuban leader highly valued the historical traditional friendship between the two countries and asserted his determination to step up their ties.

The two leaders agreed on measures to increase bilateral co-operation, including continuing to tap existing co-operative mechanisms and exchange visits; carrying out their new trade agreement; and seeking efficient solutions to boosting co-operation with regard to the two countries’ specific economic characteristics and management mechanisms.

They also agreed to co-ordinate to organise the 36th meeting of the intergovernmental committee later this year, and increase the exchange of visits at all levels and the sharing of experience in socio-economic development.

The same day Deputy Prime Minister Trịnh Đình Dũng and Bermudes chaired a dialogue with Vietnamese and Cuban firms in Hà Nội.

Speaking at the event, the Deputy PM said Việt Nam was now the second largest trade partner of Cuba in Asia. More and more Vietnamese firms were keen on promoting trade and investment projects in the Latin American country.

In the first nine months of this year, the Cuban Government granted licences to six Vietnamese firms. The Vietnamese businesses wanted the two governments to create favourable conditions for Cuba’s projects in priority fields such as agriculture, consumer goods, construction materials, hospitality services, clean energy, telecommunications, healthcare, biology and pharmaceuticals, he said.

Dũng added that the two governments’ signing of the new Việt Nam – Cuba trade agreement during the President’s visit would lay the foundation for both sides to lift two-way trade to US$500 million by 2022 from over $200 million at present.

As requested by Cuba, Việt Nam will maintain stable exports of rice to the country in the near future, as well as launch a new stage of a rice production project in Cuba.

Vietnamese businesses wanted to import more goods from Cuba, especially bio-tech and healthcare products, as well as pharmaceuticals, he said.

Bermudez said Cuba had launched reform policies and promoted foreign investment attraction, adding that it had issued a new Law on Investment to lure more foreign investors.

The Cuban people trusted many Vietnamese goods while Vietnamese firms were operating effectively in the country, he added.

Cuba wanted Vietnamese firms to extend their operations in civil aviation, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, scientific research, academic and cultural exchange, he said.

He pledged to clear barriers facing Vietnamese firms to contribute to Cuba’s development.

Meeting with NA Chair

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân yesterday said that Việt Nam always treasured the development of special friendship, solidarity and co-operation with Cuba.

During a reception in Hà Nội for President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz Canel Bermudez, the top legislator congratulated Cuba on the success of the election of its ninth National Assembly, believing that the new leadership would continue to effectively implement the policy worked out by the Communist Party of Cuba (seventh tenure) in July 2016, including successfully building a new Constitution.

She affirmed that the Vietnamese legislature and people always supported the revolutionary cause of fraternal Cuban people.

Bermudez, for his part, stated that Cuba highly valued the traditional bilateral friendship which was founded by Presidents Fidel and Hồ Chí Minh, and generations of leaders and peoples of the two countries.

He wished that the two legislatures would share experience and work closely together at international parliamentary forums. — VNS

– VNS