Vietnam and Finland vow to deepen mutual ties for practical benefits
VOV.VN - Vietnam and Finland should bring into full play their potential and strengths to promote bilateral cooperation in various fields, including business innovation, startup, energy transition, digital transformation, and green growth, as well as lawmaking.
The agreement was reached during talks in Hanoi on March 25 between Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Finnish Parliament Speaker Jussi Halla-aho who is in the capital for an official visit to Vietnam.
Vietnam attaches importance to fostering traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Finland in harmony with the overall strategic partnership between Vietnam and the European Union, Hue told his guest.
He highly appreciated the two countries’ effective cooperation and mutual support at multilateral forums, especially at the United Nations. He asked Finland to continue supporting Vietnam in strengthening comprehensive cooperation with the EU, and affirmed that Vietnam is ready to act as a bridge for Finland to strengthen relations with ASEAN.
Hue proposed that relevant agencies of the two countries jointly optimize benefits from the EU-Vietnam free trade agreement (EVFTA), take advantage of each other’s market potential, strengthen trade - investment connections, and restore import - export activities in order to increase their two-way trade turnover.
Vietnam is ready to create favourable conditions for Finnish goods and technology to enter its territory, and it expects Finland will continue to facilitate key Vietnamese export products, such as iron and steel, machinery, equipment, means of transport and spare parts, textiles, and accessories for textiles, garments, and footwear, he said.
He thanked the Finnish Parliament for ratifying the EU-Vietnam investment protection agreement (EVIPA), and hoped Finland would encourage the Parliaments of the remaining EU countries to do the same so that the agreement would soon take effect in order to ramp up investment cooperation between Vietnam and the EU, especially in potential fields, such as green economy, telecommunications, energy, environmental regeneration, water treatment, forest technology, communications and smart cities, among others.
He briefed his guest on Vietnam’s FDI attraction, saying Vietnam is currently one of the top 20 FDI attractors globally, with about 38,000 projects capitalized at more than US$400 billion. Despite a decline in global investment last year, foreign investment attraction to Vietnam still rose by 36%.
The fields that Finland has strengths in and Vietnam needs include innovation, information technology, and digital transformation, stressed Hue.
On this occasion, he proposed that Finland lobby the European Commission (EC) to soon remove the illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) yellow card on Vietnam’s seafood exports, thereby supporting Vietnam’s socio-economic development, while helping European consumers access good quality seafood products at competitive prices. He affirmed that Vietnam strictly implement EC recommendations for its own interests.
Hue assured his guest of Vietnam’s strong resolve to realise its net zero emissions commitment by 2050 and proposed that Finland share its experience and boost cooperation with regard to institutions, resources and green finance.
Speaker Jussi Halla-aho for his part affirmed that Vietnam is one of Finland’s most important trading partners in Southeast Asia. Bilateral trade relations have increased enormously over the past 50 years, with cooperation shifting from development aid to development cooperation and normal trade cooperation that benefits both sides.
In his view, the potential for cooperation between the two countries is huge, especially in fields such as energy, information technology, and education.
He acknowledged the host’ proposals, saying bilateral cooperation, particularly in education and training, development cooperation, digital transformation, green transformation, innovation are areas of Finland’s strengths and of Vietnam’s interest.
Besides, the two countries also have potential for cooperation in fields such as responding to climate change, minimizing biodiversity loss, and protecting resources.
Both host and guest highly appreciated the fact that the two Governments have signed an agreement on Finland’s Public Sector Investment Facility projects and an evaluation report on the transition process of Finland -Vietnam cooperation in June 2021, creating a framework for implementing projects using ODA and preferential loans funded by the Finnish Government.
Also during the talks, the two legislators exchanged specific measures to enhance parliamentary relations between Vietnam and Finland. The two sides maintain contact, coordination and mutual support at regional and international parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership meeting (ASEP).
The National Assembly of Vietnam wishes to strengthen relations with the parliaments of countries, including Finland, considering parliamentary diplomacy an important channel closely linked to people-to-people diplomacy, creating a solid social foundation to promote relations with countries around the world, said Hue.
The two parliaments should therefore increase visit exchanges bilaterally and multilaterally to share experience in all related spheres, including lawmaking and oversight, so as to improve the effectiveness of their operations, suggested Hue.
The two leaders also discussed a number of international issues of common concern, as well as lessons from Vietnam’s experience in socio-economic development and international integration.
