The PM will also attend the High-level Meetings of the 68th Session of the United Nation General Assembly in the US from September 26-28.

Raising Vietnam-France relations to new heights

France is one of the leading European partners of Viet Nam, and PM Dung’s visit aims to affirm the strategic importance of the Viet Nam-France relations while seeking to raise bilateral ties to new heights.

The two sides have set up a strong development framework on the back of nearly 20 cooperation deals and a series of dialogues and consultations.

France is the third largest European trade partner of Viet Nam, with last year’s two-way trade hitting 3.2 billion USD.

In terms of investment, the country ranks second among European investors and 15 th among all countries and territories investing in Viet Nam, with over 3 billion USD in 375 valid projects by December 31, 2012.

At the same time, France has always maintained the position as the top European donor of Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Viet Nam with almost 340 million USD committed for 2013.

The cooperation between the two countries also spans various fields, from education-training, health care, science-technology to justice and security-defence. Education is a priority of France ’s cooperation with Viet Nam, focusing on the teaching of the French language and tertiary training on economic management, banking, finance, law and new technology.

On the international arena, Viet Nam and France have been cooperating closely at international and regional forums including the United Nations, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and ASEAN-EU.

Viet Nam – an active and responsible member of the UN

The 68th session of the UN General Assembly will review the implementation of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and kick-start the process of building a UN development agenda for the post-2015 era.

The attendance of PM Dung at the High-level Meetings of the session, is part of Viet Nam’s policy to further international integration and seeks to affirm that Viet Nam is an active and responsible member of the UN. It will also promote the relations between Viet Nam and the UN in general and the UN agencies in particular.

PM Dung is expected to address the High-level Meeting on September 27, sharing Viet Nam’s experiences in implementing the MDGs.

In addition, the PM is scheduled to hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the High-level Meetings to enhance the ties between Viet Nam and other countries.