Iceland and Vietnam seek ways to boost relationship

The two countries are willing to strengthen bilateral co-operation Photo: VNA

During his state visit to Vietnam earlier this month, the first by a top Icelandic leader since 1992, Iceland’s President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson had bilateral talks with Vietnam’s President Truong Tan Sang and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. He paid courtesy visits to Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung.

Addressing a seminar on clean energy in Hanoi, Grímsson said the Vietnam-European Free Trade Association Free Trade Agreement should be signed soon to help boost the relations between member countries.

Joined by five nations including Vietnam, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, this agreement saw its negotiations kick off in July 2012 and is expected to be concluded this year.

“Once this agreement takes effect, I believe the trade between Iceland and Vietnam will increase remarkably thanks to tariff slashes,” Grímsson said.

Currently, the Vietnam-Iceland bilateral trade turnover is relatively small, at $6.1 million last year and $9.2 million during this year’s first half. Vietnam exports wooden products, textiles and garments, vegetables and fruit to Iceland, while importing fishery material and machines from this market.

During this visit, Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on geothermal energy co-operation. Vietnam’s National University also signed an MoU on educational co-operation with an Iceland university.

Dung proposed that the two countries sign many more co-operative deals for specific sectors such as science and technology, culture and tourism, and find solutions to boost trade and investment from Iceland into Vietnam. Currently, Iceland has no investment projects in Vietnam.

Sang suggested that the two countries study possibilities of signing other co-operation agreements on education and training. He said Vietnam was in need of Iceland’s support in training fishery, energy, environment and social security experts.

According to Grímsson, Iceland stands ready to support Vietnam in developing renewable energy, especially geothermal energy, which refers to thermal energy generated and stored in the earth. This would be one of the most effective ways to respond to climate change.

Grímsson affirmed that Iceland would have programmes on supporting Vietnam in the sectors which were considered its strengths, including smart agriculture, high technology, sustainable fishery, foodstuffs, and most notably energy.

“In addition, Iceland is also willing to boost its bilateral co-operation with Vietnam in many other sectors such as health, social security and university-to-university education and training,” he said.

Since 2002, Vietnam and Iceland have had several bilateral co-operation agreements on evasion of double taxation, facilitation of trade between the two sides, and aviation.