Vietnamlawmagazine

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has concluded his two-day official visit to Malaysia as well as attended the 50^th anniversary celebrations of Singapore’s Independence Day.

While in Malaysia on August 7-8, the Prime Minister held talks with his Malaysian counterpart Najib Rajak, during which they agreed to upgrade the two countries’ existing comprehensive partnership to strategic partnership level.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Malaysian counterpart Najib Rajak sign a joint statement on the Vietnam-Malaysia strategic partnership framework__Photo: VNA

Both sides highlighted the extensive and intensive development of bilateral relations, and discussed how to further enhance the ties in a practical and effective manner.

In terms of politics, they agreed to intensify the exchange of high-ranking delegations, expand cooperation through the Party and National Assembly channels and people-to-people exchanges, leading to an agreement to design an action program for 2015-18 to implement contents of the strategic partnership.

Both PMs reached a consensus on the early establishment of a deputy ministerial-level defense dialogue mechanism and the signing of a memorandum of understanding on joint patrol, hotline contact, search and rescue coordination, and combating piracy.

They also agreed that trade cooperation was the highlight of the relationship and vowed to foster trade growth within the framework of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement and the ASEAN Economic Community, while accelerating the signing of a government-level memorandum of understanding on rice trade for 2015-20.

They were unanimous in pushing the implementation of specific projects in the key sectors of oil and gas, liquefied gas, electronics, consumer goods and food processing.

During the visit, the two PMs signed a joint statement on the Vietnam-Malaysia strategic partnership framework and witnessed the signing of agreements on licensing in principle for CIMB bank Malaysia, labor cooperation and cooperation between Petro Vietnam and Petronas Malaysia.

During a ceremony to mark Singapore’s 50^th year of independence on August 9, the Vietnamese Governmental leader attended a roundtable workshop with leading Singaporean businesses where he highlighted the remarkable strides made by the Vietnam-Singapore strategic partnership, particularly in economics, trade and investment.

There was enormous potential for further economic ties between the two nations, Dung said, adding that the Vietnamese Government welcomed and would create favorable conditions for Singaporean firms to boost trade and investment activities in the country.

He added that Vietnam and Singapore were joining efforts to complete the formation of the ASEAN Economic Community by the year-end, and concluding negotiations for an early signing of the TPP agreement.

The PM welcomed Singaporean entrepreneurs to study investment or expand operations in Vietnam in the fields of logistics, real estate, restaurants, hotels, industrial park development, and maritime transportation.- (VLLF)