Ambassador Dinh Nho Hung presented his Letter of Credentials to the King of Norway. (Photo: WVR)

Could you please share the meaning and key contents of the visit to Norway by Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan?

At the invitation of Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan pays an official visit to Norway from November 22-25. This is the first visit of the Vice President of Vietnam to Norway. Participating in the delegations, there were leaders of a number of ministries, branches and localities that have cooperations with Norway.

The visit of our Vice President to Norway is important, creating new momentum to further deepen cooperation in many fields, at both bilateral and multilateral levels. The content of the exchange focuses on further increasing the effectiveness of cooperation between the two countries and realizing the potential, contributing to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations, relevant development programs and national goals of the two sides.

The contents of exchanges in the contact and meeting activities in Norway of Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan covers many important areas of cooperation, related to solutions to support the circular economy, develop the marine economy, agriculture, fisheries, education, science and technology, strengthen cooperation at multilateral forums and respond to climate change.

The two sides also discuss cooperation and support for Vietnam in implementing development plans and projects in the energy sector and Vietnam's commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050; Political declaration establishing a fair energy transition partnership between Vietnam and the Group of international partners.

In addition, a topic of interest to both sides is the discussion about working with related countries to promote negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Area (EFTA), including The four member countries are Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, with the total GDP of the bloc being 1,200 billion USD.

Vietnamese Ambassador to Norway Dinh Nho Hung. (Photo: WVR)

What are your comments on the prospects of the EFTA in near future?

If counted mechanically, the main problems in negotiations are not huge. But for contents, more efforts are needed to narrow the gap on points of inconsistency. I believe that with efforts from both sides, the upcoming negotiations will make progress and end soon, to facilitate the promotion of trade cooperation between Vietnam and EFTA.

Vietnam and Norway share many similarities such as geographical advantages in terms of coastline, Norway is very experienced in developing the marine economy, blue economy... How could the two countries promote cooperation in these fields?

The marine economy and blue economy with many fields and industries always play an important leading role in the socio-economic development of the two countries and are in line with the world's development trends. The current and future development of both countries has very important contributions from these fields.

From there, many fields and cooperation programs have been implemented very effectively and practically such as maritime, shipbuilding, energy, fisheries, marine aquaculture, green agriculture, environment, plastic waste at sea, reducing emissions...

The potential for cooperation between the two countries in these fields is still large. In particular, the new point of the current and upcoming periods is that the two countries have the opportunity to promote cooperation in "green industry” - the near future industry of the world. I believe that, among them, renewable energy, fisheries and marine aquaculture will be important areas of cooperation between the two countries.

Norwegian businesses have had a certain interest in the Vietnamese market. How should we do to attract more Norwegian investment capital, as well as promote strong cooperation between localities and business communities on both sides in the coming time, especially in Norway's strong fields?

I see that Norwegian businesses, localities and partners are willing to share experience, technology, professional knowledge and are increasingly interested in strengthening cooperation with Vietnam, wishing to commit to investment and long-term business in Vietnam.

Not only direct investment, capital investment in active projects is also a quite popular form, based on compatibility with priority areas, project effectiveness, as well as a number of criteria like cutting emissions, being carbon neutral, or contributing to the implementation of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in a quantitative and measurable way.

The diplomatic and trade representative agencies of the two countries are always actively support businesses and localities to connect and seek cooperation opportunities in investment, trade, as well as in other fields.