NA Chairman, Argentine provincial leaders boost locality-to-locality cooperation

Addressing the event, Governor of Santa Fe Omar Ángel Perotti emphasised that the three localities in the central region of Argentina, also the South American nation’s key economic triangle, have important cooperative relationships with Vietnam. In 2022, the provinces organised a business delegation to the Southeast Asian country to explore cooperation opportunities. Currently, Santa Fe, Cordoba and Entre Rios account for 60% of Argentina's total exports to Vietnam.

NA Chairman Hue, for his part, stated that the visit to Argentina by the Vietnamese NA’s high-ranking delegation aims at not only promoting relations between the two legislative bodies, but also strengthening the comprehensive partnership between the countries, particularly in a number of specific sectors such as industry, agriculture and energy. One of the focuses of this visit is to help stepping up bilateral economic and trade exchanges – a bright spot in the Vietnam-Argentina relationship – toward pushing two-way import and export turnover to about 10 billion USD by 2025, doubling the current level.

He noted that Vietnam wishes to join Argentina and other countries in the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) in launching negotiations on a Vietnam-Mercosur free trade agreement, which is expected to serve as a bridge for the relationship between Vietnam and Mercosur member countries and strengthen ties between the bloc and Southeast Asia – a market of 650 million people and more than 3.6 trillion USD in GDP.

The top legislator affirmed the significance of the three-province development triangle in the cooperation between the nations and their localities and lauded their sending of the business delegation to Vietnam last year, and said he welcomes more similar delegations to Vietnam and encourages Vietnamese and Argentine firms to invest in each other’s markets.

Mentioning the sides’ promotion of their people-to-people exchange and joint works in culture, sports and tourism, the NA leader said the possibility of establishing direct flights between Vietnam and Argentina for better exchanges and tourism cooperation was also discussed.

* On April 26, within the framework of his official visit to Argentina, NA Chairman Hue received Governor of Santa Fe province Omar Angel Perotti, Governor of Cordoba province Juan Schiaretti, and Governor of Entre Rios province Gustavo Bordet.

NA Chairman Hue informed them that high-level leaders and National Assemblies of the two countries agreed on various measures to intensify cooperation and relations between the two sides, both bilaterally and multilaterally; and affirmed that Vietnam always attaches importance to and wishes to further deepen the comprehensive partnership with Argentina. He also stressed that the signing of the cooperation agreement between Vietnam’s Binh Duong province and Santa Fe holds a special significance, and expressed his hope that the two sides will continue to broaden their cooperation in the fields of their strength.

Governor Perotti said besides Binh Duong, his province also hopes to have more Vietnam’s local partners to continue utilise and bring into play potential of each side, especially economic, trade and investment cooperation. The governors expressed their wish to continue having chances to go to Vietnam for economic, trade and investment promotion activities for firms to contact, establish relations and look into each other’s markets.

NA Chairman Hue asked Santa Fe leaders to pay attention to pushing and supporting the Argentine government in its intention of broadening economic integration and cooperation, supporting the launch of negotiations on the free trade agreement between Vietnam and Mercosur.

NA Chairman, Argentine provincial leaders boost locality-to-locality cooperation: National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and Governor of Santa Fe Omar Ángel Perotti witness the signing of the letter of intent on investment and trade cooperation between the province and Binh Duong province of Vietnam. (Photo: VNA)

At the reception, NA Chairman Hue Hue witnessed the signing of the letter of intent on investment and trade cooperation by leaders of Binh Duong and Santa Fe. He also took the occasion to lay a wreath at the National Flag Memorial in Santa Fe.