Viet Nam and Germany have committed their strategic partnership, in which economic co-operation is a priority focus. President Truong Tan Sang stated this in a business forum held in Frankfurt, the largest city in the German state of Hessen on Thursday, which attracted over 30 Vietnamese businesses and nearly a hundred of German firms.
The President said that Viet Nam and Germany held enormous potential and opportunities to embrace bilateral economic co-operation, especially in the fields of infrastructure, high technology, processing, energy and environment.
Viet Nam hoped to further deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries across the fields, particularly in the economic domain, he said.
Germany for years has been the biggest trade partner of Viet Nam in the European Union (EU), accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the country's exports to the union. German companies, including leading firms, have registered a total investment capital of about US$ 1.4 billion in Viet Nam.
"The fact that there are 125,000 Vietnamese people living in Germany, along with some 100,000 Vietnamese people speaking German in Viet Nam speaks volumes of the solid foundation for the two nations to drive their economic, cultural, and social affiliation forward," the President noted.
He also highlighted the significant achievements that Viet Nam had gained over 30 years of "doi moi" (Renewal) and confirmed that the Vietnamese government would consistently improve the investment climate to enable foreign investors, including those from Germany, to do long-term business in Viet Nam.
Particularly, the upcoming establishment of the ASEAN Community and the completion of negotiations of the Viet Nam-EU Free Trade Agreement (VEFTA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement would create more new opportunities for foreign investors and promote to improve Viet Nam's business climate and competitiveness in the region, he said.
President Truong Tan Sang hoped that businesses of the two countries would grasp such brilliant opportunities and played a crucial role in propelling the bilateral economic co-operative ties forward, as well as contributing actively to the development of the Viet Nam-German strategic partnership.
At the forum, German firms highly appreciated the potentials and advantages of Viet Nam with abundant human resources and stable macro-economic and socio-political situation.
They also welcomed the efforts of Vietnamese government to improve the business environment, including the implementation of the amended Law on Investment.
Some of Germany's leading groups regarded Viet Nam as one of the key markets for their investment strategies in Asia.
The same day, President Truong Tan Sang held a meeting with Minister-President of the State of Hessen Volker Bouffier
