Hanoi (VNA) – The upcoming official visit to Vietnam by Italian PrimeMinister Giuseppe Conte from June 5-6 is expected to foster the Vietnam-Italystrategic partnership in various fields, ranging from politics, diplomacy,defence-security to economics, trade, investment, education and culture.

Vietnam and Italy setup bilateral diplomatic ties on March 23, 1973 and promoted them to a strategicpartnership in 2013. The two countries have regularly exchanged politicaldelegations, notably the visits to Italy by Party General Secretary Nguyen PhuTrong in 2013, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in 2014, andPresident Tran Dai Quang in 2016, as well as those to Vietnam by Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi in 2014 and President Sergio Mattarella in 2015.

The two countries havemaintained bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the deputy foreignministerial political consultation, the deputy ministerial defence policydialogue and the joint commission on economic cooperation. They also supporteach other at multilateral forums and organisations like the United Nations(UN), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

At present, Italy isVietnam’s fourth biggest trade partner in the European Union (EU), while thelatter is the former’s largest trader in the Association of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN). Two-way trade tripled within the past decade from 1.5 billionUSD in 2009 to more than 4.6 billion USD in 2018. In the first three months ofthis year, Vietnam’s exports to Italy reached 918 million USD.

As of late 2017, Italyranked 32nd out of the 128 nations and territories investing inVietnam with 86 projects worth 388 million USD, mainly in manufacturing andprocessing, footwear and construction.

The Italian Governmenthas put Vietnam into a list of the 10 emerging markets to prioritise developingtrade and investment relations.

In the 1980s, Italybegan providing official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam in the fieldsof water supply and drainage, environmental protection, human resourcesdevelopment and health. Currently, the Italian Government is supporting Vietnamin 11 ongoing projects and six pending others with a total committed capital ofover 100 million EUR.

Bilateral cooperationin other fields such as culture, education, tourism, and people-to-peopleexchanges has also been enhanced.

The two countries havesigned 72 education and training agreements. Every year, the Italian Ministryof Foreign Affairs grants several scholarships for Vietnamese students andpost-graduates, and opens Italian-language courses in Hanoi and Ho Chi MinhCity.

Last year, the numberof Italian tourists to Vietnam surpassed the 65,000 mark for the first time.-VNA