Year 2022 marks 50th anniversary of Pakistan-Vietnam diplomatic relations
Zubair Qureshi
Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Tien Phong has said his country is committed to improving relations with Pakistan in all fields, especially education, skills training, culture, and tourism.
“We want to work closely with Pakistani authorities, people, businesses, and other circles for a bright mutual future. When we go together, we will go farther, further and reach faster, closer to the destination of prosperity, progress, and development,” the ambassador said while talking to media persons.Phong said as the two countries were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations (1972-2022), there should be an increase in people-to-people contacts and cultural, educational, tourism, educational and religious exchanges for better bilateral relations.
The ambassador said his country had high levels of social and economic development and achieved a number of 2015 Millennium Development Goals quite ahead of time. We are now making efforts to implement the United Nations (UN) SDG-2030 and COP26 commitments on emission reduction.
Ambassador Phong was of the opinion that during the last five decades, Vietnam and Pakistan had developed excellent political, trade, and investment ties, and had technological, cultural, and people-to-people exchanges. “The trade volume between Pakistan and Vietnam increased from $54 million in 2005 to more than $700 million in 2017 and reached more than $ 794 million in 2021 with an increase of 54.41% compared to 2020. However, it is still very low compared to the huge potentials of both sides with nearly 330 million people and many other complementary advantages, such as agriculture products, pharmacy, manufacturing industries, garments and textiles, seafood, Halal foods, and many others,” he said.
Mr Phong said the two countries should tap numerous potentials to reach the optimised level of economic transactions and cooperation to benefit their peoples.
He said on the way to progress, Vietnam has always received the support from international community and friends, including Pakistan, and would join hands with Pakistan for further comprehensive cooperation, development, and prosperity of people.
“I always remind myself that I am here with the assignments from our state, party, government, and people to boost up the relations comprehensively and in all fields with Pakistan,” he said.
Ambassador Phong is also chairman of the ASEAN Committee Islamabad (ACI) has been instrumental in exploring and further promoting ties between Pakistan and ASEAN countries and for this purpose has been holding meetings with stakeholders and convincing the ASEAN countries’ investors and business companies to take advantage of Pakistan’s friendly markets.
