NA leader hosts Japan - Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Alliance Chairman

At the meeting, NA Chairman Hue showed elation at the positive development of the Vietnam - Japan relations in a variety of fields, particularly political trust, diplomacy, economy, trade-investment, and high-level delegation exchange.

Japan has retained its position as Vietnam's No. 1 partner in economy and official development assistance (ODA), No. 2 in labour, No. 3 in investment and tourism, and No. 4 in trade, he said.

The NA leader hailed the Japanese Government's implementation of a new-generation ODA programme with Vietnam, which will contribute to the latter’s recovery in the post-COVID-19 period, said Hue.

In response, Nikai underlined the need to further strengthen cooperation between the Vietnamese and Japanese parliamentarians, especially young ones. With the COVID-19 epidemic effectively controlled and prevention and control measures relaxed, the two nations need to promote the resumption of their people-to-people exchanges, he added.

Roughly 500,000 Vietnamese people are currently living, studying and working in Japan.

Nikai said that the two sides have cooperated very closely to deal with problems related to Vietnamese apprentices in Japan and should sustain such cooperation in the time to come. He suggested the development of a collaboration framework to create more favourable conditions for Vietnamese agricultural apprentices in Japan.

Emphasizing that the number of Vietnamese in Japan and vice versa is very large, Hue emphasized the necessity of continuing to cooperate to facilitate the two expatriate communities, especially via more favourable visa policies.

Chairman Hue expressed his support for the Japanese delegation's suggestions to promote cooperation in the areas of agriculture, apprentices, high-tech industry, retail, and exchanges between parliamentary friendship groups.

He used this occasion to invite the President of the House of Councillors and Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan to visit Vietnam. Hue suggested the two agencies support Vietnam’s hosting of the ninth Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Global Conference of Young Parliamentarians and send a delegation to attend the event in September.

He affirmed the Vietnamese NA’s willingness to coordinate in launching a broad array of activities to mark the 50th founding anniversary of Vietnam-Japan diplomatic ties this year and hopes that the two countries will have more cooperative works symbolising their relations in the new period./.

On this occasion, NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue cordially invited presidents of the House of Councillors and the House of Representatives of the National Diet of Japan to pay an official visit to Vietnam soon./.