Bandar Seri Begawan (VNA) – President Tran Dai Quang arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital city of Brunei, on August 26 afternoon, beginning a three-day State-level visit to the country.
The President was met at the airport by Brunei Minister of Education Pehin Haji Suyoi bin Haji Osman, Brunei Ambassador to Vietnam Pengiran Sahari Pengiran Salleh, Vietnamese Ambassador to Brunei Nguyen Truong Giang, and officials from the Vietnamese Embassy in Brunei, Brunei Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Royal Brunei Armed Forces.
The visit aims to continue implementing the diplomatic guidelines set by the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) as well as deepen international relations and reinforce the friendship and multi-faceted cooperation with Brunei.
Vietnam and Brunei established diplomatic ties in 1992. The two countries will celebrate the 25 th founding anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2017.
The bilateral relations are growing thanks to regular high-level delegation exchanges.
Two-way trade has thriven in recent years, which increased three folds from 24.2 million in 2010 to 73.7 million USD in 2015.
As of June 2016, the bilateral trade hit 17 million USD. Vietnam mainly exported seafood and rice to Brunei while importing chemicals from the country.
Brunei firms have invested in 205 investment projects in Vietnam with total registered capital of over 2.18 billion USD, ranking 18 th out of the 116 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. It is the fourth biggest ASEAN investor in Vietnam, after Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
There is plenty of room for the bilateral cooperation in seafood, real estate, and education-training.
Later the same day, President Tran Dai Quang visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Brunei where he talked with the embassy staff and representatives of overseas Vietnamese community about the situation in Vietnam, the ties between Vietnam and Brunei, and the aims of his current visit.-VNA