The Prime Ministers Nguyen Xuan Phuc of Vietnam and Giuseppe Conte of Italy co-chaired the third High-Level Dialogue on Italy-ASEAN Economic Relations in Hanoi on last week during a visit to the country.
This event assembled over representatives of 300 enterprises from Italy and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and more than 150 Vietnamese businesses. The objective was to call for a win-win cooperation between the Italian, ASEAN and Vietnamese businesses. The Italian Prime Minister expressed his hope that Italian businesses will choose Vietnam when looking east thanks to its own potential and advantages.
Italy will intensify trade promotion projects and investment flows into Vietnam to use it as a springboard to increase Italian enterprises’ presence in the ASEAN market. Italy now operates 26 investment projects worth over 39 million USD in the capital, focusing on the sectors of processing-manufacturing, trade, services, IT, and construction. Bilateral trade between Hanoi and Italy reached 387 million USD in 2018, with key goods including footwear, bags, machinery, and farming produce.
They also discussed the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, safety and freedom of navigation and overflight in the East Sea (South China Sea) to the region and the world, as well as the significance of the settlement of disputes by peaceful measures on the basis of respect for international law, including the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)
An action programme on educational cooperation for 2019 – 2022 was signed between Vietnam and Italy, on behalf of the two governments, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Van Phuc and Italian Ambassador to Vietnam Antonio Alessandro inked the pact.
Accordingly, the two sides will work together in promoting their languages and cultures. Italy will consider providing textbooks and other education materials to facilitate high schools in Vietnam in teaching Italian and training their teachers. They will also pilot teaching Italian in some selected high schools in Vietnam, with the Italian sides offering teaching programmes and funding part of the teaching costs.
Hanoi also welcomes and creates best conditions possible for Italian and ASEAN firms to look for investment and sustainable development opportunities in the capital city.