Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz (centre), co-chair of Việt Nam-Cuba Inter-Governmental Committee, spoke during a meeting held on Tuesday in Hà Nội. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese Party, State and people always treasure the fraternal solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensive co-operation with Cuba, and want to expand collaboration in the fields of both sides’ strengths so as to benefit the development of each nation, Minister of Construction Phạm Hồng Hà said on Tuesday.
At the 37th meeting of the Việt Nam-Cuba Inter-Governmental Committee in Hà Nội, Minister Hà said bilateral relations had been increasingly consolidated across politics, diplomacy, economy, culture, defence-security, and science-technology, adding the two sides had supported each other at multilateral forums, making contributions to increasing their prestige in the region and the world.
Enhancing the exchange of high-level delegations in 2019 was a vivid illustration of their desire to further improve political trust as well as experience sharing in Party building and socio-economic development in each country, he underlined.
Hà expressed his delight at the great achievements attained by the Cuban Party, State and people, particularly positive results during the process of updating its economic model.
Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz said the meeting once again affirmed the sound trade ties between the two nations.
Both sides had worked to accelerate the implementation of the new trade deal reached during the Việt Nam visit by President of the Council of State and Council of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz Canel last year, he said, believing the pact would contribute to promoting and diversifying two-way trade in the future.
Co-operation between the two countries had been boosted in various sectors, especially agriculture, food processing and health care. They had organised an array of trade promotion events and were preparing for the Havana International Fair 2019. Regarding tourism, Cuba saw a significant surge in the number of Vietnamese visitors in 2018.
The country was facing formidable economic challenges, particularly the US’s tightened trade embargo, which had affected the country’s development and local livelihoods, he said, adding this had worsened the slow payment for Vietnamese businesses.
The Cuban Government affirmed its determination to fulfil all payment obligations, and was thankful to relevant authorities in Việt Nam for their trust and support for the country to seek rational solutions to the problem, he said.
According to the Cuban minister, Việt Nam is currently the second largest trade partner of Cuba in Asia, and among the top 20 trade partners of the country in the world. As Cuba is running a trade deficit with Việt Nam, he expects that more Cuban products and services will have chances to hit the shelves in the Vietnamese market. In that way, Cuba will have better foreign currency reserves to complete its payment duties.
He took the occasion to call for further Vietnamese investment to Cuba, saying the country wanted to foster collaboration in finance and banking.
At the event, both sides agreed to carry out the evaluation on the implementation of the commitments at the 36th meeting, and results of the medium-term bilateral economic agenda during 2014-19.
Furthermore, they reached consensus on the co-operation content of the 37th meeting, identified main contents of the bilateral agenda during 2020-2025, and defined priorities in their economic co-operation together with practical measures to remove bottlenecks for trade and investment activities. — VNS