Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday received the Governor of the US state of Washington Christine Gregoire who is on a working visit to Viet Nam to boost trade co-operation with Vietnamese partners.
HA NOI —
Dung stressed that in the 15 years since the two countries set up their diplomatic ties, Viet Nam-US co-operative relations had been strongly developed, bringing practical benefits for the growth of both countries.
The co-operation potential between the two countries was still very high, therefore the two sides should boost co-operation in agriculture, education, human resource training and climate change response, he said.
Dung noted now that the two countries had signed the Viet Nam-US Free Trade Agreement and Viet Nam had become a member of the World Trade Organisation, important conditions were there to continue expanding their trade and investment co-operation.
However, recently, the US had been applying discriminatory treatment on Vietnamese exports, especially catfish products, and had not provided preferential taxes on Vietnamese goods while applying them on products from...
other ASEAN countries, Dung said. These were limitations that had a negative influence on the trade and investment co-operation between the two countries, he stressed.
As for the education and training sector, Dung said he wished the US and Washington state in particular would continue setting up schools in Viet Nam and he hoped the state would help Vietnamese people living and studying there to have stable lives.
Thanking Dung for his welcome, Gregoire said she was pleased to be only the third Washington governor to visit Viet Nam. She affirmed that the state was always willing to build a long-lasting and prosperous relationship with Viet Nam's localities.
She said she believed the restrictions in the two countries' economic ties mentioned by Dung would be resolved on the basis of friendly and co-operative relations, mutual understanding and respect.
She also thanked the Vietnamese Government for creating conditions for the export of US products.
Currently, the US is one of Viet Nam's biggest trading partners and the country's sixth largest investor. — VNS