State President to begin five-day visit to China

State President Tran Dai Quang

This is his first visit to China since he took office in early 2016.

During the visit, State President Quang is expected to hold talks with Chinese President Xi and meet with other key leaders of China, said Vietnamese Ambassador to China Dang Minh Khoi.

On the occasion, the two countries will organize a workshop on bilateral economic and trade cooperation with the participation of nearly 500 businessmen.

Along with the sound political relations, the two countries have achieved encouraging outcomes in cooperation in economics, trade, investment and tourism, thus bringing practical benefits for the two peoples, Khoi said.

Two-way trade increased to US$72 billion in 2016 from US$9.9 billion in 2006 (according to Vietnamese statistics) and US$98 billion (according to Chinese statistics).

China has been the biggest trade partner of Viet Nam over the past 13 consecutive years, while the latter has become the largest ASEAN trade partner of China.

China’s investment in Viet Nam reached US$1.8 billion in 2016 and US$684 million in the first quarter of 2017, ranking second among countries investing in Viet Nam, accounting for 23.4% of the total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in the Southeast Asian country.

More than 10,000 Vietnamese students are studying in China, while China has over 3,000 students pursuing education in Viet Nam.

China is also among the largest tourism sources of Viet Nam with 2.8 million tourists in 2016. Vice versa, Viet Nam is leading ASEAN in the number of holidaymakers to China, which almost topped 2 million in 2016.

According to the Ambassador, Vietnamese and Chinese leaders have maintained regular and candid discussions on maritime issues. 

He said the two sides agreed to pursue friendly negotiations on the basis of bilateral common perception and international law, to seek fundamental, long-term solutions acceptable to both sides to address marine matters, while implementing comprehensively and fully the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), working with ASEAN to early build a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC), and effectively controlling disputes at sea to maintain peace and stability in the East Sea.

As a neighboring country with traditional friendship and as an important trade economic partner of China, Viet Nam pledged to support China’s hosting of the high-level forum on the Belt and Road Initiative, which will see the presence of government leaders from 28 countries./.

By Kim Anh