An official welcome ceremony was held at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi on January 16 for visiting Mozambique President Armando Emilio Guebuza and his wife who were guests of President Nguyen Minh Triet.

The visit takes place at a time when Vietnam is stepping up the implementation of the Vietnam-Africa Cooperation Programme for the 2004-2010 period.

Immediately after the welcome ceremony, Mr Guebuza was received by President Nguyen Minh Triet who highlighted the visit as a great encouragement to Vietnamese people as well as a practical contribution to further strengthening cooperation relations between the two countries.

Upholding the time-honoured relationship and tradition of supporting each other in their past struggle for national independence, the two countries should boost multi-faceted cooperation in economic development to improve their people’s living standards, Mr Triet said.

For his part, the Mozambique President highly praised Vietnam’s tremendous achievements over the past years, which he described as valuable lessons for Mozambique in its national development process.

After the reception, talks were held between the two high-level delegations of Vietnam and Mozambique led by Mr Triet and Mr Guebuza.

The two sides signed four important documents including an agreement on investment encouragement and protection, an agreement on education and training cooperation, an agreement on healthcare cooperation and an agreement on agricultural cooperation.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, the Mozambique President said that these agreements will serve as positive factors in promoting the relations of friendship and cooperation between Vietnam and Mozambique and provide opportunities for the two countries’ people to learn experience from each other. Especially, Mozambique will learn a wealth of experience from Vietnam in poverty reduction, Mr Guebuza stressed.

The same day, Mr Guebuza paid a courtesy visit to Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh at the Party Central Committee’s Office.