Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh receives UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi (Source: VNA)The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is willing to help Vietnam enhance trade, investment cooperation and connectivity with African developing countries, particularly in food security and agriculture, UNCTAD Secretary General Mukhisa Kituyi has said.
He pledged the UNCTAD will promote the Vietnam-Africa relationship within the framework of the South-South cooperation, a model designed for developing countries in the global South, at a reception hosted by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh in Hanoi on October 20.
Deputy PM and FM Minh has suggested the UNCTAD continue to support Vietnam in broader and comprehensive integration and development.
Minh said the country is working to reform and escape the “middle-income trap” with opportunities and challenges stemming from new-generation free trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement.
He called on the UNCTAD to bridge Vietnam and other developing nations, including those from Africa, through the tri-party cooperation model, while hailing the UNCTAD’s continuous technical assistance for the country in trade and foreign investment.
Briefing his guest on a number of outstanding projects invested by Vietnamese businesses in Africa like the military-run telecom group Viettel, Minh proposed that the UNCTAD encourage enterprises from developing countries, including Vietnam, to access the African market and expand their operation in the region.
Kituyi showed his delight that UNCTAD-funded projects in Vietnam, including the ERegulations project, were productive.
Kituyi is currently in Vietnam to attend an international conference on cooperation potential between Vietnam and countries in the Middle East and African regions held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He has assumed the UNCTAD’s seventh Secretary General since September 1, 2013.-VNA
