President Xi Jinping arrives in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi on Sunday for a state visit to the southeast Asian country. [Photo/Xinhua]

The two countries have made tangible progress on the strategic alignment of their development initiatives -- China's Belt and Road Initiative and Vietnam's "Two Corridors and One Economic Circle" plan.

Bilateral trade has also seen a rapid growth in the past few years. Statistics show that China has been Vietnam's biggest trading partner for 13 consecutive years, while Vietnam is China's largest trading partner in Southeast Asia.

In 2016, bilateral trade volume reached $98.23 billion. The figure is expected to reach $100 billion by the end of this year, according to Hong.

China invested a total of $823.6 million in Vietnam in the first quarter of 2017, becoming the third largest foreign direct investor of the country.

"It is of great significance for the leaders of the two countries to strengthen the top-level design and jointly work on the blueprint of the future development," the Chinese ambassador told Xinhua.

Vietnam is the first leg of Xi's two-nation Asia tour, which will also take him to Laos on Monday.