Vietnam wants closer ties with China's Yunnan province
HANOI - Vietnam's four northern cities and provinces would like to beef up multi-faceted relations with the Chinese province of Yunnan, especially in the construction of an economic corridor involving the five localities.
Nguyen Phu Trong, member of Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee and secretary of the Hanoi CityParty Committee, made the statement when meeting a Yunnan delegation led by Xu Rongkai, member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and provincial governor, here on Friday.
"The cooperation between Vietnam and China in general and among the five localities, namely Hanoi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Lao Cai and Yunnan in particular, is being deepened," Trong said,adding that the traditional ties between the two countries have recently been deepened and expanded to many other fields such as economy and culture.
The four northern localities and Yunnan should strengthen theirmulti-faceted cooperation, especially economic one, because their current ties have yet to correspond to their potential and strengths, he noted, pointing out that the Vietnamese province of Lao Cai and Yunnan have great potential in economic, trade and tourism cooperation as the two sides share a long border.
On Friday morning, top leaders of the five cities and provincesreached an agreement on developing the economic corridor mainly bybeefing up cooperation in trade, tourism, and investment promotion,Trong said, expressing his hope that they will enhance their scientific and technical ties in the coming time.
He called for Yunnan's authorities and businesses to pay attention to developing historical and cultural relics; infrastructure, especially industrial parks and urban areas; and import-export activities in the capital of Hanoi.
Besides economic relation facilitation, he hoped that the four northern localities and Yunnan will accelerate exchanges of management-related experience, since China has gained remarkable achievements and experience during its opening-up process.
For his part, Xu expressed his hope that Yunnan and the four Vietnamese localities will create more favorable conditions, especially in the fields of transport and trade, so that they can fully tap their big potential in many sectors, including industry,agriculture, investment and science.
Yunnan attaches great importance to cooperation with the four northern cities and provinces, especially Lao Cai and Hanoi, he said, noting that the two-way trade between the Chinese province and Vietnam rose 36 percent to 220 million US dollars last year.
The trade is likely to reach 300 million dollars this year, he said, hoping it will account for at least 10 percent of the total import-export turnover of China and Vietnam in the near future.
The two countries'trade, which stood at 4.6 billion dollars last year, is expected to reach 5 billion dollars this year. They have set a target of 10 billion dollars in revenue in 2010.
Xinhuanet - September 03, 2004.
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