President meets Myanmar Vice President

Sang spoke highly of the Vice President's visit and said it will contribute to the traditional relations and cooperation between the two countries. The Vietnamese leader said he believes that Myanmar will continue its strong and stable development based on its past achievements. For his part, Nyan Tun said that Myanmar is in the economic development process and is interested in attracting foreign investment, including from Vietnam. Sang appreciated the outcomes of talks between the Vice President and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Thi Doan. He said the agreements reached during the visit will raise the two countries' traditional relations and comprehensive cooperation to a new height. The two sides voiced their pleasure at their developing relations, especially in politics-external relations, security-national defence, trade, investment, agriculture, aviation, and tourism. They affirmed to boost cooperation in petroleum and mineral exploitation, and between their localities. The President asked both sides to maintain the existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms, including the Vietnam-Myanmar Joint Committee, to resolve difficulties and enhance cooperation in various fields. Nyan Tun pledged to speed up the implementation of high-level agreements between the two countries, in particular the Joint Statement on 12 prioritised fields of cooperation. The two sides agreed to closely coordinate and cooperate at regional and international forums, and stressed the need to intensify their cooperation in sub-regional mechanisms such as the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS), the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), and Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar-Vietnam (CLMV). The Myanmar leader thanked the President for affirming Vietnam's support to Myanmar as the ASEAN Chair in 2014, and pledged to work closely with the country as well as other ASEAN nations to prepare for the position. Sang also affirmed that Vietnam is willing to assist and share its experience with Myanmar to organise the 2013 SEA Games. Earlier the same day, Doan held talks with Nyan Tun, during which she expressed her belief that the visit will advance the existing traditional friendship and multi-faceted cooperation between the two countries. Doan applauded the Myanmar State and people's achievements in their cause of national construction and development. Nyan Tun said he is impressed by Vietnam 's achievements in its renewal cause, and highly valued the country's growing position in the region and the world. The two sides expressed their delight at the sound development of bilateral ties over the past years and agreed that it is necessary to further strengthen their cooperation in all fields, focusing on increasing visits and meetings at all levels. They will maintain existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the Vietnam-Myanmar Joint Committee and the Joint Sub-Committee on Trade and Political Consultations, with the next event being the 8 th meeting of the Joint Committee in Myanmar later this month. The two sides agreed to boost trade and investment cooperation and strive to raise two-way trade to at least 500 million USD by 2015, while continuing to foster security and defence ties, and expanding cooperation in promising areas such as agro-forestry, fisheries, finance and banking, telecommunication, transport, oil and gas, and tourism. Doan said she hopes the Myanmar Government will continue to create favourable conditions for Vietnamese businesses to invest in Myanmar and shorten the licensing process for Vietnamese projects in Myanmar . They agreed on the importance of maintaining peace, stability, security, maritime safety and freedom in the East Sea, the settlement of disputes through peaceful means on the basis of international law - especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - and the strict and full implementation of the Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (COC), as well as the building of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea at an early date. On the occasion, Nyan Tun invited Doan to visit Myanmar, which was accepted with pleasure. The same day, Nyan Tun visited the Bank of Investment and Development of Vietnam, the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar, and the Military-run Telecom Group (Viettel) . He also met several Vietnamese businesses.-VNA