President Nguyen Minh Triet has welcomed Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, and entrepreneurs accompanying him on his current visit to Vietnam to promote to bilateral relations.

In his meeting with the Prince, President Triet recalled his favourable impressions of the largest Middle East nation during his recent visit, which led to the signing of a number of co-operation accords.

He expressed expectations of cumulative investments from Saudi Arabia and pledged to provide the best available conditions and a transparent business climate for its investors to operate efficiently in Vietnam.

The State leader also expressed thanks to Saudi Arabia for its assistance to Vietnamese flood victims.

He took this opportunity to present a Friendship Order, a high honour of the Vietnamese State, to the Saudi Arabian Prince for his contributions to facilitating friendship and multi-faceted co-operation between the two countries.

For his part, Prince Abdul Aziz Al Saud reaffirmed his goal of boosting bilateral ties, focusing on the economy, trade and investment.

Despite the global financial crisis, the Vietnamese economy has continued to grow steadily and its market has emerged as a destination for investment in Asia and the world as a whole, said the prince.

He said Saudi Arabia had invested in projects in banking and hospitality industries and this trend would continue in the future.

He highly valued the industriousness shown by thousands of Vietnamese guest workers in his country and expressed hopes for further co-operation in this sector.

The Prince also emphasized that Saudi Arabia is ready to help charities in Vietnam. (VNA)

Vietnam and Saudi Arabia strive for stronger ties

Vietnam wants to make bilateral ties with Saudi Arabia more fruitful, especially in areas of each country’s strengths.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made this statement while receiving Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud in Hanoi on July 28.

PM Dung welcomed the Saudi Arabian Prince’s visit to develop friendship and co-operation between the two countries and congratulated the Prince on receiving the Friendship Order, a top honour of the Vietnamese State.

He also applauded the Prince’s trade and investment co-operation initiatives and said the two sides should make more efforts to foster two-way trade in the future.

Vietnam is ready to welcome and support Saudi Arabian investors and promote investment activities in the country, especially in the fields of tourism, hotels, oil and gas, and labour, he said.

PM Dung also suggested the two sides sign a strategy on oil and gas co-operation as soon as possible and increase co-ordination in exporting Vietnamese guest workers to Saudi Arabia.

For his part, the Saudi Arabian Prince appreciated Vietnam’s achievements in overcoming the impacts of the world economic crisis, saying this is a significant success for the Vietnamese Government and people.

He said Saudi Arabia is now home to around 10,000 Vietnamese guest workers and the Saudi Arabian government hopes to raise the figure to hundreds of thousands in the future.

Saudi Arabian businesses are also promoting investment in the tourism and hotel sector in Vietnam, he added.

The Saudi Arabian Prince met with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem later the same day. (VNA)