Tokyo (VNA) – Vietnam will take an active part inthe upcoming G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan, where it will participate as a guestat the invitation of host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, according to VietnameseAmbassador to Japan Vu Hong Nam.

He made the remark in an interview with theVietnam News Agency ahead of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s trip to attendthe summit on June 28-29.

The diplomat said this summit will be the firstmajor international event in Japan’s Reiwa era which began on May 1, and alsothe first G20 Summit the Northeast Asian country has ever hosted. It takesplace amid two contrary trends in the global economy: the emergence of tradeprotectionism and the development of trade liberalisation.

Japan invited Vietnam to such an importantmeeting because bilateral relations are very special, and Vietnam is atrustworthy friend of Japan. That also reflects Vietnam’s growing stature andthe G20 members’ respect for Vietnam, he noted.

Nam said as a special guest, Vietnam willactively participate in the event, and PM Phuc will deliver important speecheson key issues of the summit.

The issues to be put on the table consist of thereform of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), digital economy, and environment,especially marine environment. All the three are closely related to Vietnam’sinterests, and the country has also been working hard on them, he said.

Aside from participating in the summit’ssessions, PM Phuc is also scheduled to have bilateral meetings with leaders ofG20 member economies.

Regarding Vietnam-Japan relations, theambassador noted they just celebrated 45 years of their diplomatic ties in2018, and both share the view that bilateral relations have never been so good.

He described the countries’ connections as veryspecial, highlighting strong people-to-people exchange. Millions of Japanesehave visited Vietnam while hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese have come toJapan. Additionally, 330,000 Vietnamese people are working and studying in theNortheast Asian nation, which is also ready to share knowledge and technologywith young Vietnamese to help with the country’s development.

Those are special relations, and only such specialrelations can generate such a good political and economic cooperation and people-to-peopleexchange like it is now, Nam said.

The diplomat expressed his belief that the Vietnam-Japanties will continue developing faster and more strongly, adding theComprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)will create a solid foundation for their partnership to further flourish.

The CPTPP came into effect only six months ago,but it has had strong impact on bilateral trade. In the first half of 2019,trade between the countries increased by almost 8 percent from a year earlier,a relatively high rate compared to the pre-CPTPP period.

Nam said he believes bilateral trade willincrease even more when Vietnamese firms get used to and make further use ofthe deal.

In terms of investment, Japan’s investment inVietnam reached 1.52 billion USD in the first five months of 2019, raising thiscountry’s total FDI capital in Vietnam to 57.4 billion USD – accounting for16.4 percent of the total FDI in the Southeast Asian country. That has madeJapan the second biggest foreign investor in Vietnam.

He said the CPTPP will bring about enormousbenefits to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) while Japan’s industrymainly depends on SMEs. Therefore, the number of Japanese SMEs in Vietnam willincrease and their investment will also rise subsequently.-VNA