At the opening session, Mr Yokota congratulated Vietnam on becoming an official member of the World Trade Organisation, and appreciated the Vietnam-Japan relations of cooperation in politics, foreign affairs, economics, and social affairs. He also stressed that bilateral relations have been lifted to a new height following the exchange of visits by the two leaders last year. Mr Yokota spoke highly of Vietnam’s high and stable economic growth rate and expressed his wish that the negotiation round will further boost relations of cooperation in investment and trade between the two countries.

For his part, Deputy Minister of Trade Phan The Rue highly valued the fine cooperation in economics and trade between Vietnam and Japan and said that the Vietnamese public are very interested in the current round of negotiations on building a bilateral agreement on economic partnership with Japan. Mr Rue expressed his hope that for mutual understanding and benefit of the two countries, the two negotiation delegations will soon agree on the main contents of the deal.

After the opening session, group discussions about goods, services, competition, origin of goods, intellectual property, customs and other cooperation fields will be held.

The first round of negotiations will close on January 18.