Chairman Trong expressed his satisfaction during his meeting with Deputy Chairman of the Chamber of Deputies of the Czech Republic, Vojtech Filip, in Hanoi on April 2, as part of his four-day visit from April 1.

The legislative chief said an increasing exchange of high-level visits has also contributed to the recent fine development of relations between the two Governments, parliaments and people, for mutual interest.

As the most powerful bodies, the National Assembly of Vietnam and the Parliament of the Czech Republic should push their respective Governments to enforce the high-profile agreements, Mr Trong said.

These efforts should be made to further develop bilateral relations, especially between legislatures, he noted.

Chairman Trong's views were echoed by Mr Filip, who made it clear that his on-going visit is to concretize agreements signed with Vietnam in September 2006 as the outcome of the visit by the Czech Chamber of Deputies Chairman.

Their meeting was wrapped up with Mr Trong pinning the Friendship Order from the Vietnamese Government to his guest for his active contributions to strengthening and developing traditional friendship between the two countries.

Earlier in the day, the Czech lower house's Deputy Chairman held talks with Director of the National Assembly's Economic and Budgetary Committee, Nguyen Duc Kien, who was seeking Czech assistance in energy, transport and personnel training.

Mr Kien expressed Vietnam's interest in learning Czech experiences in shifting the national economy from central planning to market economy and maintaining high economic growth in the new stage of development.

The two sides reached a consensus on focusing relations on economics, commerce and investment which they admitted remain in a modest level as compared to the two countries' potential.

Deputy Chairman Filip said Czech businesses are looking for investment opportunities in energy and auto-making in Vietnam. He also expressed willingness to extend assistance to Vietnam in personnel training and forest growing.

Mr Filip and his entourage also took this visit to attend a National Assembly plenary session on April 2 and held working sessions with the leaderships of the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and the State Bank of Vietnam on measures to boost cooperation.