President Truong Tan Sang to visit Hungary, Denmark

Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang will pay State visits to Hungary from September 15-17 and the Kingdom of Denmark from September 18-20 at the invitations of Hungarian President Ader Janos and Danish Queen Margrethe II.

His journey aims to strengthen friendship and multifaceted cooperation with the two European countries while raising Vietnam ’s position and prestige in Europe and the world. 

Since Vietnam and Hungary established their diplomatic ties in 1950, the two countries’ relations have enjoyed fine developments. Hungary has supported Vietnam during its national construction and defence. The Central European nation trained nearly 3.500 scientists and technicians for Vietnam . 

Over the past decade, the Hungarian President, Prime Minister and National Assembly Speaker have visited Vietnam , while their Vietnamese counterparts have also travelled to Hungary . 

The two countries’ economic-trade cooperation continues to see positive growth. Two-way trade has remained stable but grown in recent years, hitting 121 million USD in 2012. 

Hungary now provides Vietnam with an official development aid (ODA) fund worth 115 million USD in the environmental and healthcare fields. The two countries also signed an agreement on cultural cooperation in March. 

Hungary is the first leg of President Sang’s trip to Europe that includes the Kingdom of Denmark . 

Denmark was among the first Western countries to establish diplomatic ties with Vietnam (ties officially began on November 25, 1971). Since then, the two countries have seen fine traditional friendship and cooperation and regularly hold exchanges of high-ranking delegations. 

During Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Denmark in September 2009, the two nations agreed to lift their ties to a Partnership for Development on the basis of equality, stability, durability and mutual benefit, with the priority placed on boosting cooperation in economics, trade, investment, development, culture, education, science and technology. 

In 2012, the two countries established the strategic partnership in the areas of climate change, energy, environment and green growth, with the aim of creating a new framework for their cooperation in these fields. 

The Danish Government has chosen Vietnam as one of ten nations to implement its Market Development Strategy, which aims to encourage Danish businesses to expand their investment and operations in Vietnam . 

As of late May, the Northern European nation had 106 projects with a total registered capital topping 674 million USD in Vietnam , ranking 25 th among 100 countries and territories investing in the country. The projects mostly focus on the fields of industrial processing, manufacturing, transportation, wholesale and retail. 

Last year, bilateral two-way trade reached 468 million USD, increasing slightly from the previous year, while the figure was 184.2 million USD during the first five months of 2013. 

Vietnam mainly exports garment and textiles, footwear, wooden products, handicrafts, coffee and electrical equipment to Denmark , while importing chemicals, dairy products and raw materials from the European country. 

Denmark is now among Vietnam ’s biggest non-refundable ODA providers. Since 1972, it has provided Vietnam with nearly 1.2 billion USD mostly used in the spheres of environment, climate change, judicial reform and education.