Hanoi (VNA) – The official visit to Vietnam by Speaker of the House of Representatives of Malaysia Tan Sri Dato' Johari Bin Abdul and his spouse from October 22 to 25 is expected to further deepen the Vietnam – Malaysia strategic partnership and contribute to developing the parliamentary relations between the two countries in a substantive and effective fashion, bringing benefits to the people of both sides.

The visit, to be made at the invitation of Chairman of the National Assembly (NA) Tran Thanh Man, will take place in the context that the two countries are enjoying robust relations, with various activities held to mark their 50th anniversary of the diplomatic relations last year and many others scheduled in celebration of the 10th anniversary of their strategic partnership in 2025.

Sound political – diplomatic relations

Over the past 50 years, the Vietnam – Malaysia relations have developed strongly, particularly after they were upgraded into a strategic partnership in August 2015, paving the way for extensive and comprehensive cooperation across the areas of politics, diplomacy, economy, trade, culture, tourism, defence, security, science technology, and sustainable development.

The two countries have maintained regular high-level delegation exchanges and contacts through the Party, Government, State, parliament, and people-to-people channels.

Most recently, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had a meeting with his Malaysian counterpart Anwar Ibrahim on the sidelines of the 44th and 45th ASEAN Summits and Related Summits in Vientiane, during which the two leaders spoke highly of the efforts by ministries and sectors of both sides to bring the strategic partnership forward in a deeper and more practical manner.

Discussing future cooperation orientations, they agreed to increase high-level mutual visits and effectively carry out bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including their joint committee on trade. The leaders reached consensus on strengthening collaboration in such areas as security, education, aviation, tourism, as well as emerging sectors like green economy and digital economy, aiming to elevate bilateral relations to a new height.

Leaders of both countries have paid due attention to and maintained bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Joint Committee on Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, the Joint Trade Committee, the Committee on Science Technology Cooperation, and the Committee on Defence Cooperation.

The two countries adopted an action programme to carry out their strategic partnership for the 2021-2025 period with major orientations so as to capitalise on the potential and strengths of each side towards post-pandemic recovery and resilient and sustainable development.

Additionally, as they have well coordinated and regularly exchanged consultations with each other at regional and international forums, they have shared many areas of consensus and common views on ASEAN issues as well as the relations between the bloc and partners, helping improve ASEAN’s position and roles in the international arena.

Vietnam is committed to supporting Malaysia which will act as the ASEAN Chair in 2025, and the comprehensive implementation of the ASEAN Community Vision 2045

Bright spots in economic – trade cooperation

The two countriess have recorded positive economic-trade cooperation achievements over the recent past, with Malaysia among top trading and investment partners of Vietnam.

As of August, Malaysia was the second largest trading partner of Vietnam in ASEAN and the 11th largest globally, while Vietnam was the third biggest trading partner of the former in the regional bloc.

Two-way trade turnover reached 12.5 billion USD in 2021, 14.67 billion USD in 2022, 12.66 billion USD in 2023, and 10.64 billion USD in the first nine months of this year. The two countries are striving towards a trade revenue of 18 billion USD by 2025 and 25 billion USD by 2030.

Vietnam has exported telephones and components, crude oil, rice, and coffee to Malaysia, and imported computers and electronic products, machinery and equipment, petroleum, household appliances and components, and chemicals from Malaysia.

The country hopes Malaysia will further facilitate market access for Vietnamese products, particularly processed agricultural products and seafood, support it to develop the Halal industry, and encourage firms to land investment in Vietnam in digital transformation, green transition, and clean energy and wind power export, among others.

Malaysia is also hoping for enhanced collaboration across economy, trade and investment with Vietnam.

As of September, Malaysia ranked 10th among the 148 countries and territories landing investment in Vietnam, with nearly 13 billion USD registered in 748 projects covering education and training, production, power distribution, gas, water, and manufacturing and processing industry.

Besides, the bilateral cooperation in security – defence has been unceasingly strengthened, with regular exchanges of delegations at all levels as well as experience and information sharing regarding the prevention of terrorism, cybercrimes and trans-national crimes.

The two countries have also witnessed rosy collaboration in labour, education and tourism. The Vietnamese community with over 30,000 people in Malaysia have served as a bridge to promote the traditional relations between the two nations.

They have agreed to continue their experience sharing and cooperation to build mechanisms and policies, improve management capacity, transfer technology, train high-quality human resources, as well as promote people-to-people exchanges and tourism and cultural collaboration.

Effective parliamentary cooperation

The relations between Vietnam’s National Assembly and Malaysia’s House of Representatives and Senate have been consolidated and enhanced at both bilateral level and within the framework of the inter-parliamentary forums such as the ASEAN Inter - Parliamentary Assembly, the Inter - Parliamentary Union, and the Asia – Pacific Parliamentary Forum, contributing to promoting the ties between the two nations.

However, delegation exchanges between the two legislatives bodies have not been organised regularly due to a shortage of cooperation agreement.

During his visit to Malaysia in August, Vice Chairman of the NA Nguyen Khac Dinh had a meeting with Tan Sri Dato’ Johari Bin Abdul and held talks with Deputy President of the Senate Nur Jazlan Bin Tan Sri Mohamed. He urged relevant agencies of both sides to study and speed up the signing of a cooperation deal between the Vietnamese NA and the Malaysian House of Representatives and Senate, saying the move will enhance exchanges of delegations at all levels between them.

He also suggested the two legislative bodies continue creating a legal corridor for the two Governments to effectively bring into full play the agreements signed, enhance oversight, and encourage ministries, sectors, localities, and businesses to implement the documents.

He welcomed Malaysia’s granting of the permission to establish the Malaysia-Vietnam Friendship Association and urged the Malaysian House of Representatives, Senate and Malaysian lawmakers to continue to support and create favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community in Malaysia, thus contributing to Malaysia's development and serving as a bridge for the relationship between the two countries. Besides, he recommended the secretariats of the Malaysian House of Representatives and Senate bolster collaboration with the Vietnamese NA Office in human resources training and experience sharing in the research work and organisation of parliamentary activities.

For their parts, Tan Sri Dato’ Johari Bin Abdul and Nur Jazlan bin Tan Sri Mohamed agreed with Dinh’s suggestions and affirmed both the House of Representatives and Senate wish to intensify their cooperation ties with Vietnam. They agreed to enhance delegation exchanges and promote the signing of a cooperation agreement between the two legislative bodies.

The two sides concurred that the legislative organisations need to continue enhancing their coordination mechanisms and supporting each other’s stance on the regional and international issues at multilateral parliamentary forums of which they are members./.