Attending the meeting were Mrs. Nguyen Thi Doan, Vice State President of Vietnam; Mr. Vu Xuan Hong, VUFO’s President; Mr. Nguyen Lam, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Fatherland Front (VFF) Central Committee; Mr. Hua Duc Nhi, VAFCA's Chairman; Ambassadors of Egypt, Algeria, Angola, Libya, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan; representatives from ministries and central agencies; members of the Friendship Associations with African countries; and former Vietnamese experts working in Africa……
Addressing the meeting, Mr. Hua Duc Nhi reviewed the great achievements of African countries over the past years. Africa is rated one of the continents of the fastest economic growth. Beside economic development, Africa has been working on a range of activities as hunger elimination, poverty reduction, disease prevention and conflict resolution.
Vietnam has, nowadays, established diplomatic relations with almost African countries and regularly exchanged high level delegations,which has created important prerequisite for cooperation between Vietnam and regional countries in various fields.
Economic and trade ties between Vietnam and African countries have also been well - developed. Many Vietnamese businesses have sought opportunities for investment in Africa in such fields as oil and gas exploration and exploitation, motorbike assembling and manufacturing, agricultural tools production and telecommunications. The turnover of two-way trade between Vietnam and Africa rose significantly from 2.07 billion USD in 2007 to 4.77 billion USD in 2011, and eight months of 2012 reached 1.81 billion USD, he added.
Mr. Hua Duc Nhi confirmed that the friendship relations between Vietnam and Africa will surely develop, bringing pratical achievements and benefits to the all countries. The cooperative process shows that Vietnam and Afrian countries have many advantages complementing each others for development, he said.
On behalf of the African Ambassadors to Vietnam, Algerian Ambassador Cherif Chikhi emphasized that the relations between Vietnam and Africa are historical ones, which were shaped in the difficulties of the struggles for independence, and now become intimate with the strengthened multilateral and bilateral cooperations. Under that framework of cooperations, Vietnam's goodwill has been shown through the two Vietnam - Africa international forums held in Hanoi in August 2010 and May 2003, which indicated the close relationship between the two sides, reaffirmed their determinations to seek for and implement joint projects in various fields.
Mr. Cherif Chikhi expressed his belief that Vietnam and African countries will take firm steps on the path of progress and development. The friendship relations between Vietnam and Africa will more cohesive for mutual benefits, peace and stability in the world./.
