NA Vice Chairman meets with leaders of Italy’s lower house

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly of Vietnam Phung Quoc Hien (L) and President of the Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico (Photo: VNA)

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) of Vietnam Phung Quoc Hien visited the Chamber of Deputies of Italy on September 24 as part of his ongoing working trip to the European country.

At his meeting with President of the Chamber of Deputies Roberto Fico, Hien said the Vietnamese NA wants to further strengthen the strategic partnership between Vietnam and Italy.

Vietnam attaches great importance to the exchange of delegations, especially high-level ones between the two countries and parliaments, Hien said, adding that the Southeast Asian country is ready to share experience and coordinate closely with Italy at both regional and international forums.

He thanked the Italian parliament and government for creating favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Italy to settle down and integrate into the host society.

He noted that two-way trade has increased steadily in recent years, but has yet to match the potential and strength of the two economies.

The NA Vice Chairman proposed Italian leaders support the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), so as to bring Vietnam-Italy trade to 6 billion USD by 2020 and 10 billion USD in the following years as targeted by their leaders.

He extended an invitation from NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan to Roberto Fico to visit Vietnam soon. The host accepted the invitation with pleasure.

During his talks with Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies Ettore Rosato, Hien said his current visit to Italy is to promote and deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries as well as the cooperative ties between the two parliaments. Vietnam is keen to step up cooperation with Italy in tourism and culture, especially the conservation and promotion of the value of heritage sites such as Hoi An ancient city, Hue imperial city, and Hanoi Old Quarter, as well as in education, training, science-technology, locality-to-locality cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges, Hien said.

He asked the two sides to increase high-level delegation exchanges and meetings between parliamentarians in addition to sharing experience in law-building and supervision in respective countries.

He suggested intensifying coordination to push the implementation of cooperation agreements signed between the two governments and strategic cooperation projects.

The two sides should enhance coordination and mutual support at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the Asia-Europe Parliamentary Partnership (ASEP).

The host and guest agreed that it is necessary to ensure security, safety and freedom of navigation in the East Sea and settle disputes via peaceful means in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and work towards a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).

Ettore Rosato hoped the relations between Vietnam and Italy will be further deepened.

He shared Vietnam’s concerns in water resources management, saying the international community should have measures to require upstream countries to ensure water security for downstream countries.

Italy has many businesses with rich experience in water management and they could cooperate with Vietnam, he added.

He said he backs the ratification of the EVFTA and EVIPA to create a legal foundation for the economic, trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and Italy.