Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang and Mr. Konstantin Vasilievich Vnukov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation
in Vietnam during the visit and working with the Ministry of Transport in the afternoon of 22nd July
In this afternoon the Minister Dinh La Thang received the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation in Vietnam, Mr. Konstantin Vasilievich Vnukov.
According to the Ambassador, Vietnam and Russia are important partners, have deep traditional relationship in infrastructure construction, science and technology, personnel training ... In particular, new opportunities open up for the cooperation between the two countries when Trade Agreement between Vietnam and Eurasian Economic Union has just been signed in May this year.
"This year the Russian government spends 800 scholarships for Vietnamese students, next year hopefully he number will increase to 1,000 scholarships. If the transport sector is in need of staff training, we are ready to create all conditions. Besides, recently the Russian side also has some agreements with Vietnam on opening flight route from Hanoi to Vladivostok, investments in railway infrastructure and wagons ... and what is more important is that we also should enhance communication and exchange high-level missions to promote cooperation", the Ambassador suggested.
Thanking the Ambassador's attention to the transport sector, however, the Minister said, although Russia and Vietnam have good relationship, the connections and development in the field of transport between the two countries are not commensurate with the potential.
Thereby, the Minister said, for the field of transport between the two countries, the aviation sector is newly exploited on the basis of the agreements signed since 1993. There have only been the routes from Hanoi Ho Chi Minh City to Moscow and vice versa, in addition there are flights from Nha Trang.
Vietnam also has good relations in the maritime sector and the registry with Russia.
"On the work of staff training, especially in the transport sector, a lot of Vietnamese staff engineers who are trained in Russia have taken good the training field and held many important positions in the Transport Sector" said the Minister.
Ending the meeting, the Minister agreed with the Ambassador of the Russian Federation - Konstantin Vasilievich Vnukov that the cooperation in transportation between the two countries has not been commensurate with the potential yet.
"I recommend that the Ambassador, in your term of office, will have more initiatives to help promote stronger this area between the two countries. The government is recommended to continue training Transport staff, engineers for Vietnam, especially the engineers in: Aviation in the field of emergency, anti-terrorism and aviation safety, security monitoring; in maritime sector, the cooperation can be made in the fields of shipbuilding, maritime search and rescue, marine environmental protection; in the railway sector many prospects for cooperation might be opened "the minister said.
Besides, the Minister Dinh La Thang informed the Ambassador that, Vietnam in general and the Ministry of Transport always welcome and create the most favorable conditions for the Russian enterprises to invest directly in transport infrastructure projects of Vietnam.
Also in this afternoon (22nd July), the Minister Dinh La Thang also had meeting with Belgian Ambassador, Mr. Bruno Angelet. The Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang expressed his pleasure to see the Belgian Ambassador Bruno Angelet again and congratulated the Ambassador for the task of EU Ambassador in Vietnam in the coming time. The Minister thanked the intimate feelings that Royal Belgium spent to the country and people of Vietnam.
The Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang congratulated the Ambassador for successfully completing his term of office
and preparing to receive the new task of EU's Ambassador in Vietnam in the coming time
Expressing at the meeting, the Ambassador said: "In the four years of my term in Vietnam, witnessing and working together, I especially admire the Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang. He is dynamic, enterprising, has many rational policy decisions for Vietnam transport sector to have completely change".
At the meeting, talking about the transportation projects which are implemented in Vietnam, the Ambassador expressed great interest in the projects Belgium is investing in Hai Phong such as Lach Huyen, Dinh Vu Industrial Zone, Nam Dinh Vu and Cat Hai ... The Ambassador also mentioned his wish that the Minister would support the promotion, connection of Vietnam ports with Flanders and Antwerp port of Balgium and airline connectivity issues between Vietnam - Belgium through Paris ...
For specific projects, the Minister welcomed the investment and cooperation of Belgian enterprises and other international companies in Vietnam via the connection of Belgium; committed to create the best conditions for the businesses of the two countries to continue caring, promoting transport infrastructure.projects.
The Minister also recommended that, in the following time the two sides should promote aviation cooperation, Maritime is particularly a strong field of Belgium; more actively promote the signed cooperation agreements; in particular, he hoped to get the support of Belgium on training logistics personnel, consulting seaport management experience following Port Authority model which is the strength of Belgium ...
At the meeting, the Minister Dinh La Thang welcomed the outcome of work in the last term of the Ambassador in Vietnam. In the past four years, Mr. Bruno Angelet was very active and dynamic in promoting cooperation in the field of transport between Vietnam and Belgium, facilitated businesses of the two countries searching partnership opportunities and developing business. Typically, proposals and ideas for building seaport authority model of the Ambassador were very practical, consistent with the development needs of the maritime sector in Vietnam; through the support of the Ambassador, every year lots of staff in transport sector may get scholarships from the Belgian Government to attend training programs in Antwerps in planning, exploitation and seaport management, logistics service operators ...
"MOT respect the positive contributions of the Ambassador to the development of transport sector and expect that, in your capacity as an Ambassador of the EU in Vietnam in the following time, the Ambassador will continue pay attention to the transport sector and actively support us for Vietnam to continue developing, completing the convenient, modern transportation system and specially for the transport sector to successfully implement economic development strategies in the near future ", said the Minister.
Congratulating the Belgian Ambassador for the outstanding tenure in Vietnam, the Minister Dinh La Thang and the Ambassador presented each other meaningful gifts of their homeland.