Economic cooperation is key in Vietnam - Japan relations

Early on the morning of March 20, President Truong Tan Sang and his wife, along with a high-ranking delegation of our country, arrived in Hanoi, concluding a state visit to Japan at the invitation of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress.

The visit achieved many important successes, marking a new historical milestone in elevating the extensive strategic partnership between the two countries, while promoting comprehensive cooperation in all fields for the benefit of the two countries, for peace and prosperity in Asia.

President Truong Tan Sang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

This State visit to Japan is the first visit of President Truong Tan Sang as Head of State and the second State visit to Japan by a Vietnamese President in more than 40 years, since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1973.

More specifically, the President is the first foreign leader to be invited by the King to visit Japan in 2014. The visit takes place in the context of the strong and extensive development of the Vietnam-Japan relationship since the two countries established a strategic partnership in 2009. The two countries have also successfully organized the Vietnam-Japan Friendship Year 2013 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations.

With a busy schedule, the President had a series of meetings and contacts with the King, the Royal Family, the National Assembly, the Government, and many leaders of large economic groups, business associations, local leaders, people-to-people exchange associations, close Japanese friends of Vietnam, and even Japanese farmers.

Most prominently at the Japanese National Assembly, the oldest legislative body in Asia, in the presence of a large number of parliamentarians from both houses and the Japanese cabinet, the President delivered a speech with the theme “Innovation and creativity to adapt to a changing world”. The presence and speech of the President won the special affection of all social classes and components.

Along with the important speech before the Japanese Parliament that was warmly welcomed, President Truong Tan Sang and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a very successful meeting. The two leaders issued a Joint Statement on establishing an extensive strategic partnership for peace and prosperity in Asia between Vietnam and Japan. The Joint Statement established major directions for the relationship between the two countries in the new development period.

President Truong Tan Sang also emphasized that the establishment of a new cooperation framework will open up opportunities for cooperation in all areas from politics, science, culture, education, national security and defense and international cooperation, especially as Vietnam is innovating and restructuring its economy and investment environment. This will be an attractive destination for Japan.

It can be seen that since Vietnam and Japan established a strategic partnership in 2009, economic cooperation has been the key to the relationship between the two countries. Japan has ranked first in the list of foreign investors with a registered capital of nearly 35 billion USD and is the third largest trading partner of Vietnam with an exchange turnover of more than 25 billion USD. Japan is also the country that provides ODA to Vietnam at the highest level and regularly every year, even in difficult times with a total value of 23 billion USD.

Obviously, the deep and wide cooperation between the two sides requires a new framework or level of cooperation suitable for reality. Therefore, through most of the talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and meetings with Japanese politicians, the President had open and useful dialogues with hundreds of leaders of economic organizations and leading Japanese enterprises to encourage Japanese economic circles to actively participate in supporting Vietnam in implementing the Industrialization Strategy, developing infrastructure and contributing to the sustainable development of Vietnam... in which cooperation in developing supporting industries is an important highlight.

At the meetings and business forums, there were the presence of leaders of leading Japanese corporations as well as Japan's commitment to implementing the action plan for 6 priority industries in Vietnam's Industrialization Strategy within the framework of Vietnam-Japan cooperation, supporting the development of specialized industrial zones, and continuing to provide a preferential loan of 120 billion yen in the second phase of fiscal year 2012 for 5 major projects in Vietnam.

In addition, the two countries have also reached many cooperation agreements in the fields of human resource development, science and technology, health care, culture and education, in which agricultural cooperation is a breakthrough when Japan will consider supporting Vietnam to increase productivity, improve processing efficiency, strengthen control, quality management and food safety in agricultural, forestry and fishery products, industrialize agriculture, apply high technology, biotechnology in cultivation and animal husbandry, contributing to increasing income, narrowing the gap and improving farmers' lives. This is a new step in cooperation between the two countries.

Along with the success in economic cooperation, it is impossible not to mention the success in promoting people-to-people exchange between the two countries. In Japan, the President had a series of meetings with hundreds of friends, politicians, businessmen and representatives of friendship organizations with Vietnam.

Japanese friends, including former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who was the first Japanese Prime Minister to officially visit Vietnam in 1994, opening a new stage of development in the relationship between the two countries, said that the President's attention to Japanese friends and friendship organizations will strongly promote people-to-people exchanges, strengthening the friendship and understanding between the people of the two countries.

Assessing the results of the State visit to Japan in just 3 days but with up to 50 activities spread from Tokyo to Ibaraki and Osaka, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh affirmed that the results achieved, especially the elevation of the relationship between the two countries to a deep strategic partnership, have created a new framework for cooperation and a new driving force to firmly connect the two peoples.

According to VOV