Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Vietnam-China Strategic Cooperation Partnership

At the invitation of the Government of the People Republic of China and of the Shanghai and Jiangsu provinces, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung accompanied by his wife, today visits the 2010 Shanghai World Expo and on this occasion will visit Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

The visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his wife to the Opening ceremony of the 2010 Shanghai Expo and to the provinces of Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu will create a new momentum to deepen the Vietnam-China total partnership cooperation in every aspects in the time to come, especially during the "Vietnamese-China Friendship Year" and the year when Vietnam hold the ASEAN 2010 Chairmanship.

New Opportunities
The people rejoice at the great achievements made by China on its road of reform and open door policy during the last 30 years. The average annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is over 9 percent and in 2009, has reached RMB 31,404.5 billion (approximately US$ 5,000 billion); the trade turn-over in 2009 has attained over $2,200 billion and foreign reserves now have reached $2.4 billion, the highest in the world. The 2010 Shanghai Expo, with the theme "For a greener city and a better life" is a big event in Asia attracting the attention of billions of people on the globe. The Chinese government has given special attention to this big scale non commercial exposition. General Secretary and Chairman Hu Jintao together with foreign leaders, heads of government and dignitaries will attend the opening ceremony. The expo will be an opportunity for countries and peoples in the world to exchange and learn from each other on culture, science and technology to increase mutual understanding and trust for a better life. The exposition attracts the participation of about 200 countries around the world. China has reserved for Vietnam an area of 1,000 m² to construct a Pavilion to introduce and promote image of the country and people of Vietnam.

The Hua dong region of China which includes Shanghai city, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces with a population of 170 million inhabitants is one of the biggest economic centers and regarded as both the economic locomotive and most thriving financial center of China. These are the localities that have had good relations with Vietnam like the Jiangsu province has established direct ties with Dong Nai province of Vietnam. The visit to the 2010 Shanghai Expo and to Shanghai city, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung this time once again reasserts that the Party, State, government and the people of Vietnam highly value the Vietnam-China total strategic cooperation partnership following the motto of "friendly neighbors, comprehensive cooperation, long term stability and looking towards the future" and the spirit of "good neighbors, good friends, good comrades and good partners" and continue to elevate this relationship to a new quality development level for the interests of the people of the two countries and at the same time contribute to the enhancement of the friendly and cooperative ties between Vietnam and these localities of China.

Comprehensive Strategic Partnership
The people pleased to see that the relationship between Vietnam and China has achieved important developments in recent times, particularly on the occasion of the China's visit of Party Secretary general Nong Duc Manh (May 2008), the two sides have unanimously agreed to develop the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries according to the 16 golden words and the four "good" spirit and to establish a hot line between the leaders of the two countries with a view to help the development of sustainable and long term bilateral relationship.

The two sides have successfully organized a series of important and practical activities to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and Vietnam, the first event to kick off the "China-Vietnam Friendship Year." The two countries maintain the good tradition and regularly exchange visiting delegations of high ranking leaders of the two parties and governments. During these visits, the leaders have stressed that the Vietnam-China friendship is a valuable asset of the two countries and peoples that should be carefully preserved and upheld; they pledged to spare no effort to consolidate and deepen this relationship to build trust and to support each other in the work of renewal, open door reform and building socialism in each country.

Enhancing Trade Ties
The economic and commercial relations between the two countries never cease to expand. China has become the top trading partner of Vietnam. In 2009, though affected by the global financial crisis and economic recession, the two-way trade turn-over still reached US$ 21.35 billion with an increase of 5.76 percent. The leaders of the two countries have spent time to mull over measures to implement the sustainable growth target of trade turn-over while improving the trade balance. The two sides have signed the two treaties on animal and plant quarantine cooperation and are working towards the completion of the "Five-year plan for Vietnam-China trade development". The two countries will further boost cooperation for big projects, especially the ones within the framework of the "two corridors, one economic belt" agreement. Exchanges between the two countries various ministries, departments and localities have expanded continuously. Vietnam and China have cooperated effectively on multilateral forums such as the UN, WTO, APEC, ASEM, East Asia Summit, ASEAN+3 and so forth.

The settlement of issues relevant to the borders between the two countries is progressing positively. The two sides have signed the Treaty on land borders demarcation (1999); the Treaty on the Gulf of Tonkin demarcation (2000); the Treaty on fishery cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin (2000); the Protocol on fishery cooperation in the Gulf of Tonkin (2004). The two countries have completed the demarcation work on land borders and have organized a ceremony to mark this event at the Friendship border gate on 23 February 2009. The two sides pledged to carry on the smooth implementation of these two important treaties.

Increasing Friendly Relations
The visit of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to the 2010 Shanghai Expo and to Shanghai city, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces is aimed at consolidating the trustful relationship among leaders of the two countries; increasing friendly relations and expanding cooperation between Vietnam and China in general and with the mentioned localities in particular; concretizing the total strategic partnership cooperation between the two Parties and States through important programs, plans and measures with a view to make the areas of cooperation more practical and effective, in particular in economic, trade, investment and tourism cooperation.

I wish the trip of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung great success in achieving the promotion of the Vietnam-China comprehensive strategic partnership cooperation to a higher level for the happiness and prosperity of the two peoples and thus, contributing to maintaining of peace, stability, cooperation and development in the region and in the world.

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