The agreement was reached during talks and meetings in Ottawa between senior Canadian officials and Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem who visited Canada from September 28-30.

Mr Khiem held talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lawrence Cannon, and met with the Minister of Agriculture, Gerry Ritz, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Cooperation, Jim Abbott, the Speaker of the Senate, Noel Kinsella, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, Peter Milliken.

They all said that cooperative ties between Canada and Vietnam have developed well, bringing many practical benefits to both countries. Vietnam and Canada have worked closely together in a number of prestigious regional and international organisations such as the United Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Francophone community and the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), of which both are official members.

Bilateral trade and investment ties have grown and flourished in recent years, with two-way trade last year reaching US$1.2 billion. Canada is now the 9^th biggest foreign investor in Vietnam. Since 1982, Canada’s official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam has amounted to CAD600 million which has been used effectively.

The Canadian government considers Vietnam one of its main recipients of ODA, said Minister Cannon, adding that a Canadian delegation led by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of International Cooperation will visit Vietnam in early 2010 to speed up ODA-funded projects.

All agreed to increase cooperation in agriculture and education, especially in the exchange of students. The Canadian officials pledged to support Vietnam in developing its human resources and signing labour contracts with Canadian companies. 

The Canadian Ministers and MPs praised the contributions made by the Vietnamese community to Canada’s development, especially in health care, science and the business community.

While exchanging views on regional and international issues of mutual concern, both parties underlined the need to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons and increase cooperation in energy and food security and environmental protection, as well as in addressing the consequences of climate change.

During his stay, Mr Khiem also met with representatives of the Vietnamese community in Canada. He briefed them on the major developments in the country and its policies on Vietnamese nationals living overseas.