Agreements head historic China visit

Vietnam and China early last week signed 13 documents to intensify bilateral ties, witnessed by Vietnam’s Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and China’s Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping after bilateral talks were rounded off in Beijing during the Vietnamese leader’s visit to China during October 30-November 2.

Chinese Party General Secretary and President Xi Jinping presented China’s Friendship Medal to Party General Secretary of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong, photo VNA

The documents cover various sectors that will facilitate both nations’ ministries, agencies, and localities to deepen cooperation (see box).

During their talks, the Vietnamese Party leader stressed that Vietnam attached special importance to the Chinese market, wanted to raise exports to China, and wished that China would continue creating favourable conditions for and soon open its market for Vietnam’s agro-forestry-fishery products.

Party General Secretary Trong also suggested that China facilitate procedures and increase the quota of Vietnamese goods transiting China to a third country by rail, and promote favourable conditions for cooperation in air, road, and rail transport.

Figures from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam showed that both countries’ bilateral trade turnover has kept expanding, hitting $147.7 billion in the first 10 months of this year. China is Vietnam’s second-largest export market (after the US) and the largest import market. Meanwhile, Vietnam is China’s biggest trade partner within ASEAN and the sixth-largest trade partner in the world. In the first 10 months of this year, Vietnam’s exports to China hit $47 billion – up 5.6 per cent on-year, and its imports from China stood at $100.7 billion – up 12.3 per cent on-year. The figure reached $165.9 billion last year, up 24.6 per cent compared to the previous year.

Vietnam welcomes and stands ready to create favourable conditions for China’s large, high-tech companies to expand investment in the nation, said the Vietnamese Party leader.

Currently, China has over 3,500 valid investment projects in Vietnam, registered at $22.6 billion in total, making it the sixth-largest foreign investor in the Southeast Asian nation. In the first 10 months of 2022, Chinese investors registered $1.7 billion in Vietnam for both new and operational projects, and stake acquisitions and capital contributions as well.

The Chinese leader reaffirmed that China would ensure bilateral trade relations grow in a more balanced direction and facilitate the imports of Vietnam’s agro-forestry-fishery products to the Chinese market.

Vietnam and China have also agreed to intensify ties in agriculture, environment, science and technology, and healthcare.

The two leaders suggested that each side continue to create favourable travel conditions for the people of both nations, soon restore commercial flights and cooperation in tourism and trade, and continue to facilitate exchanges and cooperation, especially in border localities.

The Chinese leader presented China’s Friendship Medal to the Vienamese leader. On behalf of the Party and the state of Vietnam, the latter invited the former to visit Vietnam soon, to which he accepted.

In 2017, Vietnam and China signed 15 cooperation deals on many sectors ranging from the economy, transportation and defence to healthcare, tourism, and training during Party General Secretary Trong’s official visit to China. Vietnam and China established a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership in 2008.

The two nations’ senior leaders reached a common understanding on strengthening coordination and jointly promoting trade, production capacity and investment, infrastructure, and finance cooperation.

Both sides have established and signed many mechanisms, such as a working group on cooperation on infrastructure and a working group on monetary cooperation; an agreement on extending and supplementing the 5-year development plan for economic and trade cooperation between Vietnam and China for the 2017-2021 period; and the Amended Border Trade Agreement (2016).

In 2020, Vietnam and China reached consensus on boosting investment and trade to gradually touch 2-way trade balances and raise the latter’s high-quality investment in the former. Both countries also agreed to deepen ties in sci-tech, the environment, transport, agriculture, and healthcare while expanding cooperation in culture, education, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.

At a meeting in July between Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh and Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, they agreed China should open its markets for Vietnamese agricultural produce more rapidly and that several economic cooperation projects and non-refundable aid projects in Vietnam need to be quickened, even though travel between the two countries is still challenging.

Wang Yi said that China attaches special importance to Vietnam’s interest in expanding the exports of agro-forestry-fishery products to China, and China stands ready to open and upgrade border gates as per the needs of the two sides and continues to expand markets and cooperation with Vietnam.