Maputo (VNA)꧒ – President Truong Tan Sang met Speaker of the Parliament of Mozambique Veronica Macamo and Secretary General of the ruling Liberation Front (Frelimo) Party Eliseu Machava in Maputo on March 12 (local time).

Macamo hailed the visit as an important milestone in bilateral ties and affirmed her determination to strengthen experience-sharing between the two legislatures, work closely at inter-parliamentary organisations and intensify bilateral ties in economics, trade, telecommunications and agriculture. She proposed signing a cooperation agreement between the two legislatures. The President expressed his delight at visiting the country after seven years in office and spoke highly of the Mozambican Parliament’s role in national development. In a separate meeting with Frelimo Party leader Machava, the Vietnamese leader briefed his host about the outcomes of the 12 th National Party Congress. He called on the two countries to maintain close cooperation and said he believed that under the sound leadership of the Frelimo Party, Mozambique will reap more successes throughout the nation’s development, fostering the traditional friendship between the two Parties and peoples. Machava, for his part, said Frelimo appreciates and always does its best to solidify its long-standing ties with Vietnam. He thanked Vietnam for sharing experiences with Frelimo in Party-building and personnel training. A number of Party members who took training courses in Vietnam ascended to high ranks in the Party. The same day, President Sang and Mozambican President Filipe Jacinto Nyusi attended the Mozambique-Vietnam business forum co-hosted by the Confederation of Business Associations and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with nearly 200 firms taking part. While discussing the goal to raise two-way trade to 500 million USD by 2020, a majority of participants said they highly valued Vietnam’s potential in various fields, particularly in farm produce processing, garments and wooden furniture. With Mozambique’s strengths in crude materials, they described it as fertile ground for Vietnamese investors. Nyusi said in its Look East policy, the Mozambican Government paid attention to the areas of agriculture, energy, tourism, construction and transport, and has offered incentives to pitch for foreign investment. The Vietnamese guest asked the two business communities to continue discussing a plan to open a bonded warehouse and launch an inter-bank payment mechanism. He said he believed that with Vietnamese and Mozambican leaders’ support, more and more Vietnamese firms will come to Mozambique, following the success of Movitel – a joint-venture between Vietnamese telecom group Viettel telecom and Mozambique’s SPI company. Also on March 12, President Sang visited Movitel and met Vietnamese nationals living in the country. On March 13, the State leader and his entourage left Maputo, concluding their Mozambican visit and embarking on a trip to Iran. According to a joint communiqué issued following his visit, the two countries’ leaders agreed to facilitate high-level visits and deepen bilateral ties in farming, aquaculture, maritime transport, aviation, education-training, health care, science-technology, national defence-security and disaster mitigation. Both sides expressed their wishes to strengthen consultation mechanisms and coordinate in multilateral issues to protect interests of developing countries and promote fairer development in a global political and economic order.-VNA