State President holds talks with Ethiopian counterpart

State President Tran Dai Quang holds talks with Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome, August 23, 2018 - Photo: VNA

The Ethiopian President made that statement during the talks with State President Tran Dai Quang on August 23 on the occasion of the Vietnamese State leader’s official visit to Ethiopia. 

At the talks, the two leaders discussed each side’s situations and proposed measures to boost bilateral trade ties. 

Mr. Quang highly appraised Ethiopia’s average economic growth of 10% over the decade and its efforts to improve people’s lives and more cooperative opportunities with other nations in the world in general and Viet Nam in particular. 

He lauded the active role and contributions of Ethiopia in the African Union the framework of the United Nations and peace-keeping activities and ensuring security and stability in the region and the world. 

Mr. Mulatu Teshome expected that Viet Nam will share economic experience with Ethiopia, especially in such areas as agriculture and aquaculture. 

Both sides agreed to facilitate their businesses to invest in their markets, establish suitable payment methods for supporting enterprises, enhance market survey, share policy information, consider sending  honorary consuls to create more connection channels and take advantages of economic cooperative opportunities.

They were unanimous in strengthening high-ranking delegation exchanges, boost cooperation in parliament, localities and people-to-people and cultural exchanges to increase mutual knowledge. 

The same occasion, State President Tran Dai Quang respectively invited Mr. Mulatu Teshome to pay an official visit to Viet Nam and he accepted with pleasure. 

After the talks, the leaders witnessed the signing of cooperation documents, including a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on investment cooperation between the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ethiopian Investment Commission, an agreement on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders and an MoU on cooperation between the two ministries of foreign affairs.

State President Tran Dai Quang meets with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed, August 23, 2018 - Photo: VNA

The same day, State President Tran Dai Quang met with Ethiopian PM Abiy Ahmed. Both leaders assented to acerbate cooperative relations through promoting delegation exchanges through Party, State, parliament, Government and people-people channels. 

As nations with more than 100 million people, they will make efforts in launching cooperative opportunities, enhancing trade exchanges, expanding the list of high-quality goods with competitive prices while increasing information sharing and facilitating businesses’ investment promotion.

The Vietnamese leader suggested Ethiopia create favorable conditions for Vietnamese firms, including the telecom group Viettel, to seek investment cooperation opportunities in Ethiopia in telecommunications, trade, agriculture, aviation, and construction of small and medium-sized hydropower plants.

They supposed that Viet Nam’s experience in agricultural cultivation could be applied in Ethiopia to help the country ensure food security and agricultural development.

Mr. Quang hailed the active role of Ethiopia as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council in the 2017-2018 period as well as its crucial role in Africa.

He proposed Ethiopia serve as a bridge to connect ASEAN and Viet Nam in particular with African countries and the African Alliance, suggesting the two countries enhance coordination, experience sharing, and mutual support at international forums and within the framework of the United Nations, the Non-Aligned Movement, and the South-South cooperation as well as share experience in UN peacekeeping activities.

On the occasion, State President Quang conveyed the invitation of PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc to the Ethiopian PM to visit Viet Nam in an appropriate time.

By Thuy Dung