President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro Moros (Source: gettyimages/AFP)President of Venezuela Nicolas Maduro Moros is on an official visit to Vietnam from August 30-31 at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang.
His visit is meant to strengthen bilateral ties by sharing initiatives to expand investment and fostering close support at regional and global forums.
Vietnam and Venezuela set up diplomatic ties in December 1989. Since then, the two countries have continuously consolidated their friendship and collaboration via growing contacts and all-level delegation exchanges.
They have reached agreements on joint projects on petroleum and oil exploration, construction, solar energy, public lighting, and culture during the meetings of their Inter-governmental Committee.
So far, a wide range of agreements have been inked between the two governments and their sectors, including those on visa exemption for diplomatic passport holders, cooperation in science-technology, energy, education, culture, tourism, and agriculture.
Two-way trade between Vietnam and Venezuela has continuously increased in recent years, hitting 62.7 million USD last year, with the former enjoying a trade surplus of 57.3 million USD.
Vietnam exports mainly garments and textiles, footwear, telephone and spare parts, electricity and electronic devices, food and foodstuff to Venezuela while importing garment and footwear materials, rubber, equipment and spare parts from this market.
As of April 2015, Vietnam poured 1.8 billion USD into its projects in Venezuela, making the Latin American country among its top investment destinations, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Investment Agency.-VNA
