PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc and his spouse led a Vietnamese high-ranking delegation to pay an official visit to Myanmar from December 16-18.

Illustration photo

 During the official visit, the two sides are expected to sign important documents to cement and deepen the comprehensive partnership. 

Over the past time, the comprehensive partnership between Viet Nam and Myanmar has flourished, especially political confidence has been consolidated via exchanges of high-ranking delegations. 

Over the past two years, the two countries exchanged high-ranking delegations including the official visits of Party General Secretary, State President Nguyen Phu Trong to Myanmar in August, 2017, Myanmar Vice President U Henry Van Thio to Viet Nam in April, 2018, Myanmar’s President U Win Myint to Viet Nam in May, 2019. 

Besides existing cooperative mechanisms including the joint cooperative committee, subcommittee on trade cooperation, political consultation, and security consultation, the Myanmar-Viet Nam Friendship Association and the Viet Nam Business Association in Myanmar were founded, serving to boost cooperation between the two countries. 

Viet Nam and Myanmar are traditional friends and reliable partners in ASEAN, regional and international forums. 

Two-way trade turnover hit about US$ 860 million in 2018, representing a year-on-year growth of 3.8%. As of late 2018, Viet Nam had 224 trade representatives of companies of different modes in Myanmar. 

In the first ten months of 2019, the figure hit US$ 790 million, up 9.3% against the same period last year. Viet Nam was the seventh largest investor in Myanmar with 18 projects worth nearly US$ 2.2 billion. 

Multimodal transport cooperation has been promoted including road, sea, and aviation among the two countries and sub-regions. 

In 2011, the two sides opened a direct flight which served to boost tourism cooperation. 

The two sides boosted cooperation in agriculture, light industries, healthcare, education, technical science, justice, law making, information, telecommunication, and sports. 

Local cooperation among Vietnamese localities and Myanmar’s peers (Ha Noi and Nay Pyi Taw; Da Nang and Mandalay; HCMC and Yangon) have been strengthened. 

Via the official visit, PM Phuc hopes to demonstrate the comprehensive partnership between Viet Nam and Myanmar; promote cooperation in trade, investment, security and national defense./.