Duringa meeting with Chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan Kassym Zhomart Tokayev in Astana,the capital city of Kazakhstan on October 17, Ngan informed the host about theoutcomes of her talks with Chairman of the Mazhilis of the Parliament (LowerHouse) of Kazakhstan Nurlan Nigmatulin, saying that both sides agreed onspecific cooperation contents to boost ties between the two legislatures andmulti-dimensional cooperation between the two countries.
Sheasked for reviewing the outcomes of the one-year implementation of theVietnam-Eurasian Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (Vietnam-EAEU FTA) andeffectively upholding Vietnam-Kazakhstan Inter-Governmental Committeemechanism.
Inthe near future, she suggested that both sides should finalize the contents ofthe agreement on the transfer of sentenced persons for the early signing, boostjoint work in line with the education-training cooperation agreement signed inSeptember 2009 and the supplementary Protocol signed in November 2011,effectively realise the tourism agreement signed in November 2011 and relateddeals.
TheVietnamese legislature wants to strengthen ties with the Kazakh parliament atregional and global forums, she said.
Onthe occasion, she informed Kazakh Senate Chairman that the 14th Vietnamese NA has established the Vietnam – Kazakhstan FriendshipParliamentarians’ Group to help with linking the two law-making bodies together.
TheVietnamese NA leader proposed upholding consultation mechanism and mutualsupport at multilateral parliamentary forums such as the Inter-ParliamentaryUnion and the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Forum. She asked for discussingregional and global issues of shared concern, facilitating the exchange ofall-level visits and monitoring the implementation of agreements signed betweenthe two nations.
Tokayev,for his part, hailed the significance of the first visit made by a VietnameseNA leader to the country.
Hesaid the two countries’ two-way trade rose to 375 million USD in the firsteight months this year from 370 million USD in 2016. The figure is estimated at450 million USD this year, which he said, is still below the two countries’potential. He asked for more active involvement of legislators in pushing theirgovernments to promote trade.
Thehost agreed with the Vietnamese leader on fully tapping incentives andopportunities brought about by the Vietnam-EAEU FTA. The two sides could exportand import goods of strength and demand, he suggested.
Kazakhstanwelcomes small- and medium-sized Vietnamese enterprises to do business in thecountry, he said, adding that the two nations will continue working closelytogether to celebrate the 25th anniversary of bilateral diplomaticties this year.
Healso took the occasion to invite Vietnam to attend the sixth Congress of theLeaders of World and Traditional Religions slated for October 2018 in thecountry.-VNA