Belgium highly values PM Dung’s visit

Viet Nam is an important partner for Belgium in South East Asia especially with regard to trade, investment and development cooperation, the Embassy said.

Thanks to the hard work on both sides, the two countries have taken big steps forward in certain important economic dossiers like the construction and delivery of a microsatellite by the Belgian Company Spacebel to Viet Nam and the license for the expansion of the Dinh Vu Industrial Zone, the biggest Belgian investment in Viet Nam. Both dossiers illustrate the boost in the bilateral economic relations between Viet Nam and Belgium and the singing of the agreements during the visit of PM Dung confirmed the progress made by both sides.

The Embassy said Belgian looks forward to continuing close cooperation with Viet Nam on some important economic and other dossiers in the future.

For development cooperation, Viet Nam is the only Asian country listed as one of the 18 Belgian partner countries. Several countries decided to stop their development cooperation with Viet Nam but Belgium believes that there are still many opportunities to work together in fostering development in Viet Nam.

PM Dung’s visit will also mark a focus point for the further negotiations of the FTA agreement between the EU and Viet Nam. The perspective of signing this agreement is very significant for both parties and when it comes to the Vietnamese exports to Europe, Belgium hopes to become the main point of entry, as a logistic hub, once the Free Trade Agreement has been signed and bilateral trade flows get a further boost.

For this reason Belgium welcomes the signing of the political agreement between PM Nguyen Tan Dung and the President of the European Commission, Mr. Barroso, which consolidates the progress already made and engages both parties in facilitating the signing of the agreement as soon as possible.

However, important issues still remain on the table and further common ground needs to be found in specific areas such as geographic indications, non-tariff barriers, rules of origin, services and government procurement.

This visit also represents the opportunity for strengthening the human rights dialogue between both countries. Belgium welcomes the important steps Viet Nam has taken to integrate within the international community in the field of human rights.

The European country congratulates Viet Nam on its membership in the UN Human Rights Council and its second UPR cycle and for accepting almost 80% of the recommendations, including some key recommendations from Belgium.

Belgium hopes PM Dung’s visit will enhance the dialogue on the adequate implementation of the accepted recommendations and on the continuing effort of Viet Nam to work on the other recommendations.