Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamese Party, State and people alwaystreasure the fraternal solidarity, traditional friendship and comprehensivecooperation with Cuba, and want to expand collaboration in the fields of bothsides’ strengths so as to benefit the development in each nation, Minister ofConstruction Pham Hong Ha stressed on September 10.

At the 37th meeting of the Vietnam-Cuba Inter-Governmental Committeein Hanoi, Minister Ha further said the bilateral relations have beenincreasingly consolidated across politics, diplomacy, economy, culture,defence-security, and science-technology, adding the two sides have supportedeach other at multilateral forums, making contributions to increasing theirprestige in the region and in the world.

Enhancing the exchange of high-level delegations in 2019 is a vividillustration for their desire to further improve political trust as well asexperience sharing in Party building and socio-economic development in eachcountry, he underlined.

Ha expressed his delight at the great achievements attained by the Cuban Party,State and people over the past time, particularly positive results during theprocess of updating its economic model.

For his part, Cuban Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment Rodrigo MalmiercaDiaz said the meeting once again affirmed the sound trade ties between the twonations.

Both sides have worked to accelerate the implementation of the new trade dealreached during the Vietnam visit by President of the Council of State andCouncil of Ministers of Cuba Miguel Mario Diaz Canel last year, he said,believing the pact will contribute to promoting and diversifying two-way tradein the time ahead.

Cooperation between the two countries has been boosted in various sectors,especially agriculture, food processing and health care. They have organised anarray of trade promotion events, and are preparing for the Havana InternationalFair 2019. Regarding tourism, Cuba saw a significant surge in the number of Vietnamesevisitors in 2018.

The country is facing formidable economic challenges, particularly the US’stightened trade embargo has affected the country’s development and locallivelihood, he said, adding this has worsened the slow payment for Vietnamesebusinesses.

The Cuban Government affirms its determination to fulfill all paymentobligations, and is thankful to relevant authorities in Vietnam for their trustand support for the American country to seek rational solutions to the problem,he said.

According to the Cuban minister, Vietnam is currently the second largest tradepartner of Cuba in Asia, and among the top 20 trade partners of the country inthe world. As Cuba is running a trade deficit with Vietnam, he expected thatmore Cuban products and services will have chances to hit the shelves in theVietnamese market in the coming time. By that way, Cuba will have betterforeign currency reserve to complete its payment duty.

Besides, he took the occasion to call for further Vietnamese investments toCuba, saying the country wants to foster collaboration in finance and banking.

At the event, both sides agreed to carry out the evaluation on theimplementation of the commitments at the 36th meeting, and resultsof the medium-term bilateral economic agenda during 2014-2019. Furthermore,they reached consensus on the cooperation content of the 37th meeting, identified main contents of the bilateral agenda during 2020-2025, anddefined priorities in their economic cooperation together with practicalmeasures to remove bottlenecks for trade and investment activities.-VNA