On the sidelines of the 140th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU-140) in Doha on April 7, Vietnamese National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan met with Qatari PM Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani. 

The guest leader expressed her gratitude to the careful reception of the IPU-140 Organization Board and highly spoke of the opening ceremony of the IPU-140. 

She congratulated Qatar on its past achievements, including among one of the countries globally achieving the highest income per capita and winning of the Asian Cup Championship 2019 by its national football team. 

Ms. Ngan took the occasion to brief her host about Viet Nam’s recent situation, saying that its economy grew by 7.08% last year and the country signed and enforced 12 free trade agreements (FTAs) and is in the processing of negotiating four other FTAs. Viet Nam also recently hosted the second summit between the USA and the DPRK. 

The guest leader recalled Qatar Airways’ launch of direct flights which link Ha Noi and the central city of Da Nang in 2018, adding that Viet Nam hopes to continue shaking hands with Qatar in the fields of trade, investment and tourism. She also hoped that the Qatar PM will create favorable conditions for Vietnamese firms. 

She was convinced that under the sound leadership of the Emir and direction of the PM, Qatar will gain more important achievements in the future. 

PM Al Thani, for his part, thanked the Vietnamese NA for supporting Qatar parliament in hosting the IPU-140. He said the IPU-140 is important to strengthen ties among parliaments, affording Qatar a chance to boost bilateral ties with countries, including Viet Nam.

The PM underlined the necessity to beef up the bilateral ties across trade and investment and wished that more Vietnamese workers will come to Qatar to work in other fields, including health care, instead of construction at present. 

The host hoped that both sides will work in specific areas so Qatar could invest more in Viet Nam. 

As Qatar will host World Cup 2022, he expressed his hope to see the presence of the Vietnamese national football team there. He suggested both sides should work closely together in infrastructure upgrade in preparation for the event.

He also accepted PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s invitation to visit Viet Nam in the future./.