HCM City (VNA) – President of the Belgian Senate StéphanieD'Hose on August 29 concluded her nine-day visit to Vietnam, which was made atthe invitation of Vietnamese National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.

During his stay, D'Hose paid a courtesy call to President VoVan Thuong, and had a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. She heldtalks with NA Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue and had a working session with ForeignMinister Bui Thanh Son.

She also visited the central provinces of Quang Tri and ThuaThien-Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City, while touring some projects conducted under thecooperation between Vietnam and Belgium.

Stéphanie D'Hose is the highest-ranking guest fromBelgium that Vietnam has welcomed in 2023 when the two countries arecelebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations andfive-year strategic partnership in agriculture. This is a chance for the twosides to discuss orientations and measures to strengthen bilateral friendship andcooperation, including ties between the two legislatures.

During her visit, leaders of the two sides agreed to speedup cooperation programmes and projects in areas of education, investment, climatechange response, digital transformation, and green economy, while increasing people-to-peopleexchange and cultural activities, thus fostering understanding and bonds between the two countries' people.

Vietnam thanked Belgium for supporting Vietnamese people duringthe past struggle for independence and the present national construction anddevelopment.

The two sides agreed to optimise advantages from theEU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) to bring two-way trade to 7 billion USDin the next 2-3 years. EVFTA is one of the achievements in economic cooperationbetween Vietnam and the EU in general and Belgium in particular. They highlyvalued the establishment of the bilateral strategic partnership in agriculture.

Leaders of the two legislatures spoke highly of thesignificance of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). NAChairman Hue suggested that the Belgian parliament speed up the process ofratifying the EVIPA.

Vietnam and Belgium also concurred to increase the exchangeof delegations at all levels, including those from parliament committees, friendshipparliamentarians’ associations, women and young parliamentarians' groups.

The two countries will also promote the consultationmechanism and support each other at multilateral parliamentary forums, whilecoordinating with each other in realising sustainable development goals andsupervising the implementation of agreements signed between the twoGovernments, and supporting and hastening the cooperation among localities andbusinesses of the two countries./.