Czech PM’s Vietnam visit set to take bilateral ties to new heights

Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Thai Xuan Dung made the statement during a recent interview given ahead of the trip.

The traditional bilateral friendship and general collaboration have been continuously consolidated and developed over the past seven decades across all spheres, including politics, diplomacy, economy, defence-security, culture, education-training, science-technology, and locality-to-locality co-operation.

According to Ambassador Dung, after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic the sides’ foreign political relations have been strengthened. The Czech PM’s April visit, which is the first high-level between the two nations since 2019, takes place amid the Czech Republic  promoting its Indo-Pacific strategy, in which Vietnam is regarded as an important partner.

The local diplomat noted that the Central European nation places Vietnam among its most important markets outside of the EU in terms of commerce and investment.

According to the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, last year’s trade turnover with the country surpassed US$2.34 billion, up 12.5% year-on-year. Statistics compiled by the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency, meanwhile, showed that as of February this year, the Czech Republic had poured a total of US$92.38 million into 41 projects nationwide, thereby ranking 50th out of the 142 countries and territories investing in the Vietnamese market.

Ambassador Dung said the Vietnamese and Czech economies complement each other, with both sides already consenting to further work together in various fields such as energy-renewable energy, automobiles, the mining industry, environmental research co-operation, wastewater treatment, petrochemical industry, and pilot training, among others.

He duly expressed his confidence that 20 leading Czech enterprises accompanying PM Fiala on his trip to the country will bring fresh vitality mutual to economic, trade, and investment links.

Both sides will use the time to comprehensively identify areas which should be promoted and implemented, the diplomat added. Stepping up education – training collaboration is another main item on the agenda of the visit, stressed Ambassador Dung.

Specifically, the two sides will sign a Letter of Intent on educational co-operation, which is the first step to promote, negotiate, and sign a co-operation agreement in the area, thereby creating a favourable legal framework and basis for higher number of scholarships granted for Vietnamese students. This will also boost the mutual exchange of lecturers and joint work in research and teaching.