Viet Nam, Malaysia eye improved economic ties
(09-06-2007)
PM Nguyen Tan Dung meets President of Malaysia’s Senate, Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Pawanteh in Ha Noi. — VNA/VNS Photo Duc Tam
HA NOI — Viet Nam and Malaysia should further develop trade and investment co-operation to help fuel both economies, said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The Prime Minister made the proposal in Ha Noi yesterday while receiving visiting President of the Senate of Malaysia Tan Sri Abdul Hamid Pawanteh.
The Prime Minister said the two countries’ trade turnover was nearly US$3 billion last year, representing an increase of 20 per cent. Malaysian businesses investing in Viet Nam contribute $2 billion to that total, he added.
Dung welcomed Malaysian businesses to invest in the form of BOT (Build, Operate and Transfer) in Viet Nam’s electricity sector. Co-operation with Viet Nam’s ministries of industry and electricity would be crucial for this type of investment, he said.
Pawanteh told Dung that his visit aimed at speeding up trade and investment co-operation between the two countries.
Malaysia would choose appropriate areas in which to invest, he said. He then specified Malaysia would probably finance an electricity plant construction project worth about $1.6 billion in Viet Nam.
Pawanteh conveyed Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s invitation for Dung to pay an official visit to Malaysia to attend the Langkawi International Dialogue in August and partake in the 50th anniversary of the Malaysian National Day.
Dung thanked Pawanteh and accepted the invitation.
At a separate meeting that day with Nguyen Phu Trong, chairman of the National Assembly, Pawanteh was urged to strengthen bilateral relations between Viet Nam and Malaysia.
Trong told his guest that Viet Nam and Malaysia had had good relations in politics, but that economic co-operation had not yet matched the two sides’ potentials.
The National Assembly chairman confirmed Viet Nam was striving to strengthen ties with all of its regional neighbours and international friends, including Malaysia, to create favourable conditions for foreign investment.
The chairman pointed out that along with economic growth, Viet Nam attached special importance to solving social issues, caring for the poor, preserving and promoting national heritage, and protecting ecological environments for sustainable development.
He said Viet Nam’s National Assembly would do its utmost to contribute to Malaysia hosting the upcoming 28th ASEAN Inter-parliamentary Assembly in August.
In reply, Mr Pawanteh said he was interested in speeding up economic co-operation with Viet Nam. Many Malaysian businesses would be interested in investing in Viet Nam, he stated. — VNS
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