Vietnamese PM arrives in Beijing

Source: Xinhua | 10-22-2008 08:54

BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in Beijing on Tuesday for the second leg of his China tour.

As guest of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Nguyen is on his first visit to the country since assuming office in 2006.

During his stay, Dung will attend the seventh summit of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) scheduled for Oct. 24-25.

He will also meet with Chinese leaders. The two countries will sign a joint document summarizing their achievements.

Dung and Wen will also witness the signing ceremony of a series of cooperative documents, the detail of which is not known, according to Vietnam's Minister to China Nguyen Vinh Quang.

Prior to the Beijing tour, Dung visited south China's Hainan Province and attended a Vietnam-China economic cooperation forum on Tuesday.

In his keynote speech delivered during the opening ceremony of the forum, Dung said China is Vietnam's biggest trading partner. Though Vietnam and Hainan Province are geographically close to each other and have a good trading relationship, Dung said more could be done. He wanted to cooperate further with Hainan in areas such as ocean shipping, the automobile industry, tourism and agriculture.

Governor of Hainan Province Luo Baoming echoed those sentiments.

More than 70 Vietnamese business people had group discussions at the forum with their Chinese counterparts.

The two sides also signed a memorandum on bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

Editor:Zhang Ning