Deputy PM seeks Sweden's support

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Van Ninh yesterday met with the Speaker of Sweden's parliament, Per Westerberg, and sought the Riksdag's support for strengthening bilateral trade and economic ties.

Ninh is currently on a week-long (April 9-17) visit to Sweden and Britain.

In Stockholm, he thanked the Swedish government for its continued assistance for Viet Nam's socio-economic development, especially through ODA funding of more than US$3 billion.


Ninh appreciated the Swedish parliament's approval of the signing of a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement (PCA) between the EU and Viet Nam in 2012.

Ninh expressed his hope that the Riksdag would also back the signing of a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Viet Nam.

Westerberg reaffirmed Swedish government's support for Viet Nam, saying it was paying attention to Viet Nam's efforts to strengthen its banking sector, carry out reforms, increase transparency and fight corruption.

He said the Swedish government will send a delegation to attend the 132nd meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, which Viet Nam will host in March 2015.

Big Swedish companies have declared an interest in Viet Nam's economic restructuring, eyeing the country as a market with great potential.

This was revealed during an a working session between Ninh and Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Sweden, Kerstin Af Jochnick, on Thursday, who explained how the country recovered after a financial crisis hit the financial market in 2008.

At another meeting with the Minister for Financial Markets, Peter Norman, Ninh was told that the Swedish Government and big companies were interested in Viet Nam's economic restructuring and considered the country a promising market with great cooperation potential.

Ninh told his hosts that restructuring the national economy, reforming the growth model towards stable and sustainable development - and restructuring the finance-banking system were the main orientations.

The deputy prime minister invited the Swedish Government to continue encouraging its businesses to invest in Viet Nam and to do more to speed up negotiations on the Viet Nam-EU free-trade agreement.