Documents related to Jetco’s establishment were signed by Vietnamese Deputy Trade Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and UK Ambassador Robert Gordon in Ha Noi on July 19.

Jetco will convene every year alternately in Viet Nam and the UK. Agendas for the meetings will be agreed by the two sides six weeks ahead. In addition, the committee will take minutes for each meeting recording the two sides’ activities.

Jetco will hold discussions to find out measures to boost the two countries’ economic and trade cooperation as well as solutions to their differences.

According to Ambassador Gordon, the Viet Nam-UK trade relations have made long steps of development, and they at present need to remove all existing barriers that are hindering the trade and investment flows in both countries.

The Ambassador said the UK has been closely cooperating with Viet Nam to improve the quality and expand the scale of Viet Nam’s financial services and management.

Through the Beyond WTO Programme, aimed to sustainable development and poverty reduction through the implementation of Viet Nam’s WTO commitments, the UK Ministry for International Development and other donors are helping Viet Nam to deal with issues arising from vulnerable fields in its initial WTO accession stage.

According to the Vietnamese Trade Ministry, the UK is one of the biggest European investors in Viet Nam. By early July, the UK had pledged 1.4 billion USD in investment in various fields in Viet Nam. The two-way trade reached 1.8 billion USD in 2006, up 12 percent year-on-year. (VNA)