Ha Noi (VNA) - Since Viet Nam and the UK established diplomatic relations at ambassadorial level on Sept. 11, 1973, the bilateral relationship has been constantly developed, particularly in the mid-1990s.

The UK was one of the first Western European countries to support Viet Nam's renewal process. The two countries have signed a number of framework economic agreements.

Viet Nam signed a textile agreement with the European Community (EC) at the end of 1992 with the help of the UK in its capacity of the EC President. Viet Nam is expected to become one of the UK's biggest official development assistance recipients in the region. The UK has committed to supporting Viet Nam in becoming a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council during the 2008-09 term as well as developing the latter's relations with the European Union (EU).

Regarding political and diplomatic relations, the first visit to the UK by Prime Minister Vo Van Kiet in July 1993 was a significant landmark in the two countries' friendly cooperative relations. The visit to the UK by National Assembly Chairman Nong Duc Manh which took place in Oct. 1993 helped enhance the two parliaments' relationship.

The UK considers Viet Nam an important Southeast Asian partner in its economic, trade and investment cooperation policy. It is planning to increase its official development assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam's rural development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction in remote, mountainous and isolated areas. It will also continue encouraging its businesses to invest more in Viet Nam and facilitating Vietnamese goods to be exported to the European Union.

The two countries have signed two documents on cooperation development, a 150 million USD credit contract for Viet Nam to buy three A. 321 aircraft, and a memorandum of understanding on the construction of an optical cable system. The Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry has signed a cooperation agreement with the Manchester Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

On Sept. 14, 1994, Viet Nam and the UK signed an aid agreement under which the UK Government provided preferential loans worth 50 million GBP to Viet Nam's priority projects.

Meanwhile, UK Princess Anne paid a five-day visit to Viet Nam on March 2, 1994. During the meetings, Vietnamese leaders spoke highly of the work of Save the Children UK and the organisation's President, Princess Anne, to assist Vietnamese children and women in education, public health and rural development.

During the visits to Viet Nam by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in November 1996 and by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescot in August, 2001, Viet Nam and the UK signed an agreement on operation mechanism of the British Council in Viet Nam, and a letter of intention on the UK Government's aid of 7.5 million GBP for hunger eradication and poverty reduction in northern Viet Nam.

Both countries initialled an investment protection and encouragement agreement during the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry Alan Johnson's visit to Viet Nam in July 2002.

While visiting Viet Nam on April 20, 2004, Gareth Thomas, parliamentarian and Under Secretary of State for International Development, attended the inauguration ceremony of the Department for International Development (DFID)'s assistance programme for Viet Nam in the 2004-06 period.

Both countries have signed a memorandum of understanding on migration.

On their economic and trade relationship, Viet Nam and the UK have signed a number of agreements in the 1991-2003 period. These include a 10 million GBP technical assistance programme for 13 projects to upgrade bridges along the national highway 1A; a 100 million USD programme to help Vietnamese illegal migrants return home from Hong Kong; an aviation transport agreement; a 50 million GBP financial framework agreement; a bilateral debt settlement agreement; a double taxation avoidance agreement; an agreement on the regulations of technical consultants; and a 25 million USD HIV/AIDS prevention agreement.

The 1997-2003 period saw a progress in bilateral trade with two-way trade rising by almost 300 percent from 358.9 million USD to approximately 1 billion USD.

The UK is Viet Nam's second biggest trade partner with two-way trade reaching 1.22 billion USD in 2004. Viet Nam's main export items to the foggy nation include footwear, textiles and garment, wood products, coffee, bicycles and accessories, and handicrafts.

Vietnamese footwear exporters earned more than 300 million USD from the UK market in the first eight months of 2004, accounting for almost 50 percent of the country's total export earnings from this market and a year-on-year increase of 30 percent.

Earnings from textiles and garment exports to the UK were registered at more than 55 million USD in the period under review, up 58 percent compared to the corresponding figure of 2003.

Local wood product businesses earned 67 million USD from exports to the UK in the Jan-Aug period of 2004, or an annual rise of 223 percent.

The period also saw coffee exporters bringing home 51 million USD from shipments to the UK, which made up almost 10 percent of Viet Nam's coffee export volume. The UK is considered a potential market for local exporters.

With more than 2 billion USD invested in 53 projects, the UK is the biggest EU investor and ranks 11th among 61 foreign investors doing business in Viet Nam. The BP-invested project to explore oil and gas in Nam Con Son with a total investment capital of 1.3 billion USD is the biggest foreign invested project in Viet Nam. The Prudential Life Insurance Company, a wholly-British invested business, appeared in Viet Nam as early as in 1994. The company has been considered the most successful UK-invested project in Viet Nam. It now employs more than 5,000 local workers and provides life insurance to more than 200,000 people living in Viet Nam.

UK non-refundable aid programme saw the highest growth speed among similar activities sponsored by foreign partners in Viet Nam with investment increasing from 35 million USD in 2003 to 100 million USD in 2005.

Prominent among official development assistance (ODA) projects funded by the UK are the 11.2 million USD project to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty in six northern highland provinces and the 8.2 million project on business reform. The UK's ODA for the 2002-2004 was mainly distributed to poverty reduction activities in the northern highland and central coastal regions and to efforts to universalise primary education, conduct economic reform, and prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

The UK annually grants between 25 and 30 scholarships to Vietnamese students. Present in Viet Nam at the end of 1993, the British Council (BC) has held free English language courses for more than 1,000 Vietnamese public employees. The BC has made worthy contributions to the training of the English language in Viet Nam. It is estimated that tens of thousands of Vietnamese have taken part in English language courses organised by the BC.

The British Government decided to exempt transit visas for Vietnamese diplomatic and official passport holders. The two governments have signed a memorandum of understanding on migration issues with the aim of strengthening bilateral efforts in this area.

Under a contract signed in October 2003, Viet Nam dispatched 423 labourers to the UK. All of the Vietnamese labourers are working in hotels with stable average income of 1,800 USD a month./.