Vietnam-Ukraine FTA negotiations start in 2013

The agreement was reached during a recent visit to the European nation by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai from December 1-4, where he held talks with Deputy PM A. Tigipko and met with PM Mykola Azarov.

Both sides underlined the need to kick-start bilateral FTA negotiations, considering the process a key measure to increase two-way trade value in the near future.

They held that the two countries should continue finalizing legal foundations for bilateral economic and trade cooperation by speeding up negotiations and signing of agreements on investment protection and plant quarantine.

They agreed to strengthen cooperation in the areas of their strength, such as energy, machinery manufacturing, aviation, technology transfer, as well as increasing the efficiency of cooperation between typical Vietnamese and Ukraine localities, namely Binh Thuan vs Kiev, Khanh Hoa vs Kharkov, and Kien Giang vs Kherson.

Ukrainian leaders expressed their country’s readiness to involve in energy projects in Vietnam, especially those to build pumped storage power plants.

They valued the Vietnamese community’s contributions and pledged to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese nationals to reside and stabilize their lives in the country.  

At a meeting with representatives of the Vietnamese community there, Hai expressed his wish that they will continue abiding by the local law, maintaining and developing the traditional Vietnamese culture, supporting needy compatriots in the homeland, and contributing to the friendship between the two countries.

The Party, State and Government of Vietnam pay due attention to protecting Vietnamese nationals overseas, and they will do their utmost to help the nationals reside, study and work in Ukraine, said Hai  

He also made a fact-finding tour of several industrial establishments and met with Ukrainian experts who used to work in Vietnam.