The trip will help Martin Candinas and the Swiss National Council delegation understand more about cooperation opportunities in the rapidly booming economic development of Vietnam, and promote discussions relating to the signing of a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) so as to promote bilateral trade-investment cooperation in the coming time.
According to the diplomat, EFTA is an intergovernmental organisation established to promote free trade and economic integration for the benefit of four member countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland. These four countries are not included in the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
Like the Vietnamese National Assembly, the Swiss National Council also has the role of overseeing the activities of state administrative agencies. And during his visit to Vietnam, President Martin Candinas will supervise the management and implementation of a technical assistance package worth 70 million CHF (78.1 million USD) for Vietnam from the Swiss Government for the 2021 – 2024 period, focusing on the fields of environmental protection and economic reform; and other Swiss projects in Vietnam.
Regarding the bilateral relations, Thomas Gass said that the relationship has developed strongly over the past 52 years, not only in politics and multilateral cooperation, but also in economic cooperation, technical assistance, trade and investment, scientific research, culture, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges.
Switzerland always attaches importance to its friendship and cooperation with Vietnam, and at the same time identifies Vietnam as an increasingly important economic partner and the two sides have a lot of room for cooperation, he said.
“We look forward to accelerating the negotiation process of the Vietnam-EFTA; at the same time, strengthen bilateral cooperation to implement the Sustainable Development Goals in the fields of finance-banking, supporting the business-start-up community, science-technology, education-training, tourism, climate change response and people-to-people exchanges. These are also the topics that we want to discuss with Vietnamese leaders during the visit of President Martin Candinas,” said the diplomat.
Regular high-level exchanges between the two countries have paved the way for ever-increasing trade and investment relations.
The diplomat went on to say that Vietnam has great potential in innovation and digital transformation, especially when it has a very dynamic and creative young population. And if it takes advantage of this strength, Vietnam will certainly continue to develop with great strides.
In the context that Vietnam is implementing the Socio-Economic Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period with science and technology playing a key role and Switzerland has strengths in the fields of innovation and transformation, Switzerland to further strengthen cooperation between the two countries in science and technology, education and training, towards establishing a partnership framework on innovation, he stated.
Switzerland will welcome Vietnamese delegations to exchange specific cooperation, including cooperation between leading universities of the two nations.
Switzerland will use new and digital technologies, for example in financial technology applications, using e-commerce platforms, or management of public assets; and support innovative solutions to improve resilience to climate change and urban planning towards sustainable development in cities for its activities in Vietnam, he added.
