PM’s Germany visit to transmit message about dynamic Vietnam
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to Germany and his attendance at the G20 Summit from July 5-8 is expected to showcase Vietnam as a dynamic country, and a trusted and responsible member of the international community.
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Mutual trust and understanding have been strengthened through the regular exchange of high-level delegations and cooperative mechanisms. During the Vietnam visit by Chancellor Angela Merkel in October 2011, the two Government leaders signed a joint statement on establishing a strategic partnership which put forward targets and measures to intensify bilateral collaboration.
Germany is Vietnam’s largest trade partner in Europe with two-way trade reaching US$8.78 billion last year and US$3.8 billion in the first five months of 2017. Vietnam mainly ships mobile phones and computer components, garment and textile, footwear, coffee, agricultural and aquatic products to Germany and imports machinery, spare parts, automobiles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and milk products from the European nation.
In terms of investment, Germany considers Vietnam a promising market with rapid development in Asia. As of April 20, the European country had 285 projects worth US$1.41 billion in the country, ranking fifth in the European Union and 20th among 116 nations and territories investing in Vietnam. There are about 300 German enterprises operating in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has 30 investment projects in Germany with total capital of US$124.8 million, focusing on finance-banking, automobiles, real estate, services and informatics.
Since 1990, Germany has provided some 2 billion USD for Official Development Assistance projects in Vietnam through technical and financial cooperation. The German Government pledged aid worth more than 600 million EUR (US$682.1 million) for projects in energy, vocational training and environment in the Southeast Asian nation.
Germany is one of the most important markets for the Vietnamese tourism sector. In the first three months of this year, 61,923 Germans visited Vietnam, up 13.2 percent year-on-year. From July 1, Vietnam piloted visa waivers for German citizens staying for 15 days or less.
German is being taught as the second foreign language in 13 schools nationwide thanks to a German Foreign Ministry initiative.
There are currently 176,000 Vietnamese people living in Germany. Several States have also piloted the teaching of the Vietnamese language in high schools, such as Brandenburg, Berlin, Sachsen and Sachsen Anhalt.
In addition, the two countries have signed agreements to create a legal foundation for economic cooperation, including an agreement on double taxation avoidance and another on investment protection and encouragement.
Themed “Shaping an interconnected world”, the G20 Summit will be held on July 7-8 in Hamburg. As the host of the APEC 2017, Vietnam was invited to conferences and meetings within the G20 framework this year.
