Havana (VNA) 𓆏– Vietnam highly valued Cuba paying attention to boosting bilateral ties in agriculture, construction, education, healthcare, biotechnology, transport and sport-physical training, President Tran Dai Quang said at the Vietnam – Cuba business forum held in Havana on November 17.

He briefed participants of Vietnam’s development strides in culture, education, and science – technology, politics, defense – security, external affairs, and international integration. The President said that the average two-way trade has reached over 200 million USD since 2012, and topped 218 million USD in 2015. He noted that the joint project supporting Cuba with household-scale rice production between 2011 and 2015 has reaped positive outcomes, while the two sides are pushing ahead with other agro-fisheries projects. Some Vietnamese firms are accelerating investment projects in tourism infrastructure building, construction materials, detergent production, oil and gas, and telecommunication. Right after the President’s visit to Cuba , the Vietnam – Cuba intergovernmental committee on economic – trade and science – technology cooperation will convene its annual 34th meeting in Havana to define specific tasks and programmes across the board in the coming time. President Tran Dai Quang called on the two countries to strengthen solidarity and mutual support on the path to socialism. He said the two sides’ leaders agreed to deepen further the special relations between Vietnamese and Cuban Parties, States and peoples, and pledged to create the best conditions for businesses to make inroads into the Southeast Asian and Latin American – Caribbean markets. Both nations concurred to support enterprises to run cooperation projects in agriculture, infrastructure building, tourism, construction materials, consumer products, energy, new-general biological and pharmaceutical products, and finances and banking, he said. The same day, President Quang hosted Minister for Regional Integration of the Dominican Republic Miguel Mejia, during which the Vietnamese State leader welcomed Dominica to open its embassy in Vietnam to bolster the friendship and multi-faced cooperation between the two countries. The President later visited the Mariel Special Economic Development Zone of Cuba. On November 17 (Cuba time), President Quang, his spouse and the high-level Party and State delegation left Havana, concluding the official visit to Cuba, and flew to Lima, Peru to attend the 24th High-level Week of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Forum from November 17-20, at the invitation of Peruvian President Pedro Paplo Kuczynsky.-VNA