Prague (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc andhis Czech counterpart Andrej Babis have agreed to collaborate to speed up thelaunching of a direct air route linking Hanoi and Prague.

Meeting with the media after their talks in Prague on April17, the two PMs said that they sought a number of measures to boost bilateralties in many areas, especially education-training, agriculture,science-technology, the environment, and culture-tourism.

PM Babis expressed his delight at meeting the Vietnamese PM onceagain after their talks in February 2008.

He stressed that the Czech Republic and Vietnam have shareda close partnership over nearly seven decades with regular delegationexchanges. The Vietnamese community in the Czech Republic has also madepositive contributions to the socio-economic development in the host country,he noted.

Vietnam is the third largest partner of the Czech Republicamong ASEAN member countries, he said, adding that the two sides have seensound development in collaboration in trade, investment, and many other areas.The Czech Republic’s exports to Vietnam have grown 30 percent in recent years,while Czech businesses hope to increase the exporting of goods to Vietnam, saidthe PM.

PM Babis revealed that at the talks the two PMs discussedvarious promising cooperation areas, such as mining, tourism, aviation, andculture-education, as well as issues regarding visas.

The Czech Republic supports the EU’s signing of the freetrade agreement with Vietnam (EVFTA) he stated.

For his part, PM Phuc thanked the Czech PM and people fortheir warm welcome.

He affirmed that his talks with his Czech counterpart wereproductive, during which both sides agreed on a number of solutions to improvethe efficiency of bilateral cooperation in the future.

He clarified that Vietnam highly values the Czech Republic’ssupport to the early signing and ratification of the EVFTA and the EU-VietnamInvestment Protection Agreement (EVIPA). The deals are of strategicsignificance for economic-trade cooperation between the EU and Vietnam, helpingbusinesses from the EU and the Czech Republic access the over 90-million-strongmarket and creating favourable conditions for collaboration in services,finance, telecommunications, and public procurement.

The EVFTA will help enhance the position and role of the EU inAsia, he said, pledging that Vietnam will be a gateway for Czech enterprises toapproach the ASEAN and East Asia markets.

PM Phuc thanked the Government of the Czech Republic forbacking the country’s Vietnamese community to live, study, and integrate intothe local society, expressing his belief that the community will continuehelping to foster friendship and affiliation between the two countries. –VNA