The Secretary of the Party Committee of China's Zhejiang Province, Zhao Hongzhu, sought increases in a wide range of co-operative domains with Viet Nam in his meeting with visiting Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The meeting took place in Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang, on Tuesday.

Zhao described Dung's visit as an important event in the relationship between Zhejiang and Viet Nam.

He said the visit reflected Viet Nam's interest in strengthening its comprehensive strategic co-operative partnership with China in general and with Zhejiang Province in particular.

Dung told the Chinese official that his visit aimed to further Viet Nam's friendship and mutually-beneficial co-operation with China's Huadong key economic zone in which Zhejiang Province plays an important role.

He emphasized that at the moment, the friendship between Viet Nam and China is growing robustly.

Dung yesterday attended the Viet Nam-China Economic-Trade Co-operation Forum in Zhejiang, held by the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Zhejiang Council for Promotion of International Trade.

Around 500 businesses from the two countries with another 400 from Zhejiang and other provinces attended the forum.

Statistics from the Government show that trade revenue between the two countries in the first three months had seen a 40 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Capital

More than 700 projects from China with total registered capital of nearly US$3 billion have been invested in Viet Nam.

In terms of a yearly 25-per-cent increase in trade revenue between the province and Viet Nam, revenue last year stood at only $1.4 billion.

Speaking at the forum, Dung said that 2010 would mark the enforcement of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement, which would result in aggressive tax falls on agricultural and industrial products.

He hoped that businesses could utilise the advantage to boost trading opportunities and contribute to the prosperity of the two countries.

He promised that the Government would create the best possible conditions to help Chinese businesses in Viet Nam.

Zhejiang Governor Lu Zushan said that the province would also create favourable conditions to promote investment and tourism.

After the meeting, agreements on tourism and trade information co-operation between HCM City and Zhejiang Province were signed.

Source: Viet Nam News