His meetings with Canada’s government and parliament senior officials took place in a friendly and constructive atmosphere, focusing on measures to increase ties and international and regional issues of common concern.

The two sides agreed to increase exchanges of high-level delegations and conduct political consultations between their two foreign ministries.

Canada pledged to increase investment in Vietnam and the two sides will accelerate negotiations for a foreign investment protection and promotion agreement (FIPA), work to increase annual two-way trade from US$1.2 billion to US$2 billion, and strengthen cooperation in the oil and gas fields. It also pledged to continue to prioritize ODA for Vietnam, acknowledging that Vietnam has been actively and effectively carrying out projects using its ODA capital since 1992, which now amounts to 600 million Canadian dollars.

The Deputy PM said the two countries would step up agricultural cooperation to tap existing potential. Canada will provide advanced techniques and machinery and import more agricultural products from Vietnam.

The two sides agreed to boost tourism to increase the number of tourists to each country, and develop tourism infrastructure.

Canada also pledged to give more assistance to Vietnam in training human resources and to facilitate the granting of visas to Vietnamese students.

The Canadian officials highly valued the overseas Vietnamese community’s contributions to Canada’s socio-economic development, particularly in medicine, science and business, and promised to create favourable conditions for them to contribute to their homeland.