President Sang andhis entourage were warmly welcomed by member of Japanese House ofRepresentatives and Deputy Foreign Minister Hirotaka Ishihara andVietnamese Ambassador to Japan Doan Xuan Hung, among others.
On the day, the State leader was set to meet with the Governor ofIbaraki prefecture and visit several agricultural research, machinerymanufacturing and flower processing facilities in the locality.
This is the president’s first ever State-level visit to Japan ,which will last until March 19. In that time, he and Japanese PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe are expected to discuss ways to expand cooperationin economics, politics, security, agriculture and culture, contributingto lifting bilateral ties to new heights.
Minister-Counsellor of the Japanese Embassy Hideo Suzuki describedPresident Sang’s visit as an important political event stronglyfurthering the bilateral relationship when both region and world arechanging rapidly.
Vietnam and Japan haveseen their relationship develop rapidly in recent years. Japan wasthe first country in the Group of Seven (G-7) to welcome the VietnameseParty General Secretary to Japan in 1995, establish a strategicpartnership with Vietnam in 2009 and recognise Vietnam’s marketeconomy in 2011.
Visits are regularly made bythe two sides’ leaders, helping consolidate political confidence and putforth measures to boost bilateral partnership.
Japan remains the leading ODA donor to Vietnam, providing a totalamount of 2.1 trillion JPY (21 billion USD) in ODA to the SoutheastAsian country from 1992 to 2012. The figure reached 1.55 billion USD in2013.
Last year, the country was Vietnam’s fourthbiggest trade partner, with two-way trade hitting 25.16 billion USD, ofwhich Vietnam earned 13.5 billion USD from selling mainly seafood,crude oil, garments and coal.
Japanwas Vietnam’s leading investor with its capital totalling 5.7billion USD in 2013. As of last December, it had 2,166 valid FDIprojects in Vietnam, with a total registered capital of 34.7 billionUSD.
In addition, the two countries have alsoenjoyed fine development in bilateral cooperation in the fields ofculture, sports, tourism, education and science and technology.-VNA