At the invitation of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung is paying an official visit to Indonesia from August 8-9 on the first leg of a tour of five ASEAN member nations, that includes Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Myanmar and Brunei.
This is the first courtesy visit to the five ASEAN nations by Mr Dung in his capacity as the new Prime Minister of Vietnam and in accordance with ASEAN member leaders’ practice.
Mr Dung’s visit aims to affirm Vietnam’s foreign policy of further developing cooperative relations, especially in economics, trade and investment with regional countries including Indonesia.
During the visit, PM Dung is expected to meet President
Agreements on culture and anti-corruption are also expected to be signed on this occasion.
After the diplomatic ties between the two countries were established on December 30, 1995, bilateral relations especially since 1990 have continued to develop in all areas, entering a new stage through the exchange of high-level visits.
Notably, cooperative relations between Vietnam and Indonesia are progressing within the framework of bilateral cooperation and regional and international forums.
The two countries signed co-operation agreements in culture, trade, economics, investment protection and encouragement, sea transport, civil aviation transport, and forestry. They also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the third meeting of the joint committee and a supplement protocol on economic, scientific and technological co-operation, crime prevention, education and a joint statement on comprehensive and friendly co-operation in the 21st century in 2003. These agreements and MoUs have helped outline the bilateral strategic partnership in the near future.
Economic and trade relations between the two countries have developed strongly in recent years. Vietnam’s exports to Indonesia tend to increase while imports are decreasing. Since 2006, Indonesia has become one of seven countries in Asia with an import value from Vietnam of more than US$1 billion.
Based on export value in recent times, the Ministry of Trade (MoT) forecast that Vietnam’s exports to Indonesia will reach around US$1.3 billion in 2007 and increase to US$1.75 billion in 2010.
According to the MoT’s statistic, Vietnam’s export value to Indonesia in the first half of this year increased by 70 percent to more than US$766 million. Many export items gained high growth rates such as rice (7.14 times), coffee (45 times), tea (3.8 times) and rubber (1.25 times). After several years of losing market share, Vietnamese peanuts restored its share with an export value of more than US$3.5 million in the first half of this year. New products such as sugar and ceramic products began gaining a foothold in the market, helping diversify Vietnamese products in the Indonesian market.
In term of investment, by the end of June 2007, Indonesian businesses had poured US$137.5 million into 13 projects in the fields of oil and gas exploration, coal, banking, hotel, processing wood, polyester production, detergent, garment and petroleum services.
Co-operations in culture, tourism and national defence between Vietnam and Indonesia in recent times have obtained significant achievements. The two countries continue exchange visits between legislative, executive and judiciary delegations at both central and local levels.
Prime Minister Dung’s visit to Indonesia will help develop the bilateral ties between the two countries into strategic and comprehensive partnership in the near future.
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