Hanoi (VNA) – VietnamesePrime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s upcoming visit to Sweden from May 26-28 ishoped to further strengthen the traditional friendship and multifacetedcooperation between the two countries.

Sweden set up diplomaticrelations with Vietnam on January 11, 1969, becoming the first Western countryto establish diplomatic ties with Vietnam.

Over the past 50 years, Swedenhas offered great support and assistance to Vietnam during the past strugglefor national independence and the present cause of national construction.

Sweden set up its embassy inHanoi in June 1970, and Vietnam established its embassy in Stockholm a monthlater. In September 2013, the Trade Office under the Business Sweden officiallybegan operation in Vietnam.

In March 2014, Sweden held thefirst conference of Swedish ambassadors in Asia in Hanoi, which coincided withthe 45th founding anniversary of Vietnam-Sweden diplomatic relations.

In January 2014, the parliamentof Sweden ratified the European Union-Vietnam Partnership and CooperationAgreement (PCA).

Trade value between the twocountries has been on the rise, hitting over 1.8 billion USD in 2018.

Meanwhile, the flow of Swedishinvestment in Vietnam has risen sharply. By March 2019, Sweden had ranked 33rd out of 131 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 67 validprojects.

Swedish-invested projects havecovered seven provinces and cities of Vietnam. Many big firms of Sweden havemarked their presence in the country, including Ericsson, ABB, IKEA,Electrolux, Volvo and H&M.

Meanwhile, Vietnam has to datepoured investment into two projects in Sweden.

Sweden is the biggest NorthwesternEuropean provider of non-refundable aid for Vietnam with total capital of over 3billion USD since 1967, mostly in health care, economic reform, institutionalbuilding, law, administrative reform, human resource development, environment,climate change, and anti-corruption.

Through the Swedish InternationalDevelopment Cooperation Agency (SIDA), Sweden has supported many cultureprojects in Vietnam. The two countries have signed two deals on culture andcommunications.

Inthe field of education-training, Sweden has trained a large number ofVietnamese experts in forestry, paper industry, energy, biotechnology, healthcare and journalism. Universities of the two nations have shared closecollaboration in training and student exchange. Since 2013, Sweden hasprioritised Vietnamese students in scholarship granting. In August 2017,Vietnam’s Ministry of Education and Training and Sweden’s Ministry of Educationand Research signed an agreement on cooperation in tertiary training andresearch.

Currently,Vietnam and Sweden are working together for the formation of partnership inresearch, technological reform, innovation support for startups andsmall-and-medium-sized enterprises.

Regardingtourism, the total number of Swedish visitors to Vietnam reached 44,045 in 2017and 49.723 in 2018, up 16.9 percent and 13 percent year on year, respectively.

Inagriculture, in 1970, Sweden helped Vietnam build Bai Bang paper factory – oneof the biggest and most modern paper plants in the Southeast Asian country. TheSwedish-funded programme of “forest, tree and people” in the 1980s helpeddevelop a material region and boost socio-economic growth in five northernprovinces. Sweden has also given many initiatives to support Vietnam inforestry, environment and climate change response.

Accordingto the Statistics Sweden, the Vietnamese community in Sweden groups about20,000 people who have showed good integration into the local society.-VNA