Hanoi (VNA) – Myanmar President Htin Kyaw and his wife arrived in Ha﷽noi on October 25 for a State-level visit to Vietnam from October 26-28 at the invitation of President Tran Dai Quang.

His visit aims to seek stronger cooperation between the two countries, especially in the fields of banking, finance, tourism and aviation. Vietnam and Myanmar have long-standing relations and share a lot of cultural and religious similarities. Both are members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The Myanmar government and people actively supported Vietnamese people in the resistance wars against France and the US as well as in the current national building and defence. In 1947, Vietnam set up an information agency in Yangon, which was upgraded to a governmental representative agency in 1948. The bilateral traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation have been developing fruitfully in recent years with regular high-level delegation exchanges and effective cooperation mechanisms. The Vietnam – Myanmar Friendship Parliamentary Group and the Myanmar – Vietnam Parliamentary Group were established in June 2013. Vietnam founded the Vietnam – Myanmar Friendship Association in August 2014 to increase mutual understanding and people-to-people exchanges. In 2015, the two sides hosted a number of activities to mark the 40 th anniversary of their diplomatic ties and organised the 8th meeting of the Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation. Regarding economic, trade and investment links, both nations have pledged to maintain collaboration in a dozen of priority fields, including agriculture, seafood, finance-banking, aviation, telecommunication, oil and gas, mineral mining, electronic equipment production, automobile assembling and manufacturing, construction, investment and trade. The bilateral economic cooperation has thrived in recent years thanks to the annual organisation of trade fairs in the respective countries to introduce products and attract investors. Vietnam is the 10th biggest trade partner of Myanmar, with two-way trade reaching 299 million USD in the first seven months of this year, a year-on-year rise of 15.9 percent. In addition to staples such as iron and steel, metal products, machinery, equipment and spare parts, plastic material and products, garment-textile, means of transport, and ceramic, Vietnam also exported food, cement, clinker and interior decoration to Myanmar. As of May 2016, Vietnam had counted 47 investment projects worth 557 million USD in Myanmar. In March 2016, Myanmar licensed the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam to open its branch in the country. The two nations have also hosted numerous diplomatic activities to strengthen bilateral amity and affiliation. They have regularly coordinated and supported each other at regional and international multilateral forums. Vietnam actively backed Myanmar to join ASEAN and the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), while Myanmar advocated Vietnam’s bids to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. During his stay in Vietnam, the Myanmar President is also attending the 8th Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam Summit (CLMV 8) and the 7th Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy Summit (ACMECS 7), and the World Economic Forum on Mekong (WEF – Mekong).-VNA