The Vietnamese Prime Minister in Bucharest
A former student in Romania, the Vietnamese Pham Minh Chinh is back to Bucharest as Prime Minister of his country
Bogdan Matei, 23.01.2024, 13:50
Politically, Vietnam is not exactly an Asian champion of human rights and, despite the longevity of its communist regime, also not a state with an unbroken order. A few days ago, the international media announced that the justice there had sentenced ten people to life imprisonment, for armed attacks on a police headquarters in the center of the country, last June. Another 90 people received prison sentences between nine months and 20 years, under the same charge: attempted overthrow of the regime. Economically, however, Vietnam is a business partner that many democracies in Europe and the two Americas want.
On Monday, the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Pham Minh Chinh, was received in Bucharest with military honors. He has been leading the government in Hanoi for almost three years, speaks Romanian and knows very well Romania, where he completed his university studies and worked in the embassy of his country here. Like all Romanian interlocutors the Vietnamese prime minister talked to, President Klaus Iohannis pleaded for the strengthening of bilateral relations, both through high-level political dialogue and sectoral cooperation. The head of state also spoke out for the expansion and diversification of the European Union-Vietnam agenda.
The interest of our country is for Romanian products to be present in Vietnam – Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu told his counterpart, according to which the value of trade exchanges does not reflect the true potential of the two states. That’s why we aim for a constant increase in bilateral trade, which will lead to the doubling of the volume by the year 2030, the head of the Romanian government said. He also mentioned joint-venture agreements already concluded between Romanian and Vietnamese companies, such as the construction this year of a used tire recycling factory in Romania, collaboration in the IT field with an investment of about two million dollars and the creation of a center of support and assistance for software in the automotive industry.
The Vietnamese government delegation also went to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, which hosted a business forum. The President of the Chamber, Mihai Daraban, specified that the number of workers from Vietnam present in the Romanian economy with proper documents is over two thousand. I think we need additional guarantees from both governments that this will work under optimal conditions moving forward, Daraban said. The economies of Romania and Vietnam are complementary and can increase commercial exchanges in numerous fields – the Minister of Economy, Radu Oprea, also stated there. The Romanian-Vietnamese business forum was attended by over 85 companies active in fields such as construction, tourism, consulting, finance, banking and IT. (MI)
