Finnish President Tarja Halonen affirmed that the Nordic country would give priority to providing Vietnam with more official development assistance (ODA) in such field as green technology, afforestation, clean energy, combating climate change, and scientific research.
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Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet (L) and Finnish President Tarja Halonen, Helsinki, Finland, May 20, 2010
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Finnish President Tarja Halonen made the announcement on May 20 (local time) in Helsinki, Finland, while holding talks with her Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Minh Triet who is paying an official visit to the Nordic country.
The two leaders reached consensus on strengthening reciprocal visits at high levels to consolidate mutual trust and understanding and on setting up a bilateral political consultation mechanism at deputy foreign ministerial rank.
In economic terms, both President Triet and President Tarja Halonen were unanimous in raising the two-way trade turnover and Finnish investments in Vietnam to US $1 billion respectively in the upcoming years.
President Triet underlined that Vietnam would speed up the economic reform, fulfill its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and create favorable conditions for Finnish enterprises to do profitable and long-term business in the country, especially in aspects of information technology, shipbuilding, wood and paper industries, and environmentally friendly technology.
Regarding education and training, President Tarja Halonen pledged that Finnish would cement and deepen joint training and scientific research programs between universities and institutions of the two countries.
Right after the talks, President Nguyen Minh Triet and President Tarja Halonen witnessed the signing ceremony of a revised agreement in which Finland will increase funds for Program 135, Phase II, which targets to boost socio-economic development in Vietnam’s remote mountainous areas and ethnic minority communities; and a cooperation agreement between the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Finnish Chamber of Commerce./.