Ambassador Pham Quoc Tru (left) at a meeting with Oran province's Governor Zaafen Abdelghani (Photo: VNA)Algiers (VNA) – Vietnam’s Ambassador to Algeria Pham QuocTru said Vietnam and Algeria should consider building a partnership frameworkfor long-term and reliable cooperation with a focus on economic ties.
Granting an interview to the Vietnam News Agency’s correspondents inAlgiers, the ambassador highlighted the close friendship between the two countriessince the establishment of diplomatic ties in 1962.
He also said bilateral economic-trade cooperation has seen progress inrecent years, with Algeria becoming the fourth largest export market of Vietnamin Africa. Vietnam has invested in the oil and gas industry in Algeria, and theVietnam-Algeria-Thailand joint venture began commercial operation in 2015,pumping around 18,000 barrels a day.
Labour cooperation saw a boom in the 1980s and 1990s with thousands ofVietnamese experts and workers working in Algeria in a range of sectors, fromeducation, healthcare to agriculture and construction. After being suspendedfor some time, Vietnamese workers returned to Algeria in 2013, mostly those whowork in construction. Around 4,000 Vietnamese workers are working in theAfrican country at present.
However, the ambassador stressed that two-way trade, at nearly 270million USD in 2016, remains modest and below the potential and expectation ofboth countries.
As Vietnam and Algeria will mark the 55th anniversary oftheir diplomatic relationship this year, it is time for them to make anassessment of bilateral cooperation across the fields and define directions tostrengthen the ties in the time ahead, he said, adding that the upcoming 11th session of the Vietnam-Algeria joint committee scheduled for March in Algierswill be a good chance to take up the work.
Ambassador Tru particularly highlighted the warm sentiment of Algerianpeople towards Vietnam, which is the result of the two nations’ mutual support duringtheir struggle for national independence, the efforts of both countries’leaders to foster bilateral friendship, and the good impression left byVietnamese experts during their time working in Algeria.-VNA
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