Day: May 26, 2023

A National Assembly (NA) delegation led by NA Vice Chairman Nguyen Khac Dinh attended the 10th Nevsky International Ecological Congress in St. Petersburg in Russia, at the invitation of the First Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of Federal Assembly of Russia (upper house) Andrey Yatskin.

At a meeting on May 25 with Yatskin, who is also head of the Russian Federation Council’s group for cooperation with the NA of Vietnam, Dinh affirmed that Vietnam always treasures the traditional friendship and comprehensive strategic partnership with Russia, and remembers the priceless support that the former Soviet Union and now Russia has given to Vietnam.

Dinh, who is also Chairman of the Vietnam – Russia Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group, pointed to a number of problems in the economic-trade partnership between the two countries, and asked Russia to support the upgrade and adjust the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to benefit bilateral relations. He also suggested that Russia create favourable conditions for the strengthening of labour cooperation in areas of each other’s strengths and demands, and simplify the visa-granting procedures for Vietnamese citizens.

The Vietnamese official expressed his hope that the parliament and government of Russia will continue to support Russian oil and gas firms to cooperate with Vietnam in oil and gas exploration and exploitation in the East Sea in line with international law.

Vietnam hopes that Russia will continue to support the country’s standpoint of settling East Sea issues through peaceful measures on the basis of international law, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) 1982, contributing to maintaining peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world, he said.

Dinh also highlighted the significance of parliamentary cooperation – an important pillar in the partnership between the two countries, stressing the need to strengthen parliamentary collaboration to support the partnership between the two governments.

For his part, Yatskin said he sent the proposal on the cooperation plan for the 2023-2025 period between the Federation Council of Federal Assembly of Russia and the Vietnamese National Assembly via the diplomatic channel, and expected to receive the reply soon.

He said that he has regularly worked with leaders of St. Petersburg during the construction of President Ho Chi Minh’s statue in the city as well as preparations for the inauguration of the statue on June 30 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Vietnamese leader’s first arrival in Petrograd of the former Soviet Union, which is St. Petersburg now.

Earlier, the Vietnamese delegation had a meeting with Vice Chairman of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg Nikolai Bondarenko who expressed delight at the diverse cooperation between the city and Vietnam as well as Vietnamese localities.

Dinh affirmed the significance of locality-to-locality cooperation between the two countries and expressed his hope that Russia and St. Petersburg will continue to give favourable conditions for the Vietnamese community to work and settle down in the city and make contributions to the development of ties between the two countries.

Also on May 25, the Vietnamese delegation attended the opening session of the 10th Nevsky International Ecological Congress.

Earlier on May 24, the delegation had a working session with the Committee for External Relations of St. Petersburg, and presented the local administration and Secondary School No.488 with many precious documents about President Ho Chi Minh to exhibit at the Ho Chi Minh Museum in the city./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Friday said it’s fully ready for the upcoming barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in October. ‘We are happy to inform the public that the Comelec is 100 percent ready to conduct the elections of the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan on October 30,’ Comelec Spokesperson Rex Laudiangco said in a televised interview. ‘We have already printed almost 92 million ballots that we’ll be using. All the election returns, statements of rules. And in fact, they have already been packed and ready for pre-deployment,’ he said. He added that Comelec is also set to train electoral board members by September, while the deployment of ballots and paraphernalia shall be done a few days before the election day. Furthermore, the Comelec is now finalizing the venues of the pilot testing for mall voting nationwide, he said. ‘The primary beneficiaries of this mall voting will be those residing in barangays with close proximity to the malls… Our countrymen should not commute going to the malls, it should be walking distance from their residences,’ Laudiangco said. He said they are looking at about a million mall voting beneficiaries for its pilot test. Drug test Meanwhile, Laudiangco said that although the Comelec is in favor of conducting drug testing among barangay and SK candidates, he said requiring drug testing remains unconstitutional. ‘If we can remember sometime in the 2007 elections. That part of the requirement for a negative drug testing certificate was already tried by the Commission on Elections. Unfortunately, we were brought to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court struck down our resolution,’ he said. In November 2008, the Supreme Court ruled the said Comelec’s resolution was unconstitutional, under the case of social justice and Aquilino Pimentel Jr. vs. Comelec. Interior and Local Government Secretary Benhur Abalos has earlier called on aspiring candidates to undergo drug testing. The Philippine National Police has also said that over 400 barangay officials were reportedly linked to illegal drug transactions, most of whom are supposedly in western Visayas. Laudiangco, however, noted that candidates may still respond to the call through voluntary drug testing. ‘Voluntary drug testing is very much welcomed,’ he said.

Source: Philippines News Agency

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang met with President of Sri Lanka Ranil Wickremesinghe, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan Hosoda Hiroyuki, and three co-chairmen of the Vietnam – Japan economic cooperation committee of the Japan Business Federation (KEIDANREN) in Tokyo on May 26.

Talking to the Sri Lankan leader, Deputy PM Quang, who is paying a working visit to Japan, affirmed that Vietnam consistently attaches importance to the traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Sri Lanka and wishes to develop bilateral relations more effectively and substantively.

He suggested both countries promote partnerships in multiple aspects, including increasing all-level mutual visits and people-to-people exchange; effectively carrying out existing bilateral cooperation mechanisms, particularly the Joint Committee chaired by the two foreign ministries; signing cooperation documents on education, culture, and agriculture; and strengthen trade links to raise bilateral trade to 500 million USD in the near future.

Quang also called for expanding ties to other potential fields, opening direct air routes to boost tourism, and maintaining close coordination at regional and international forums, especially the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement.

Recalling his impression during a visit to Vietnam as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, President Wickremesinghe underlined support for the countries’ relations to develop more strongly and recommended that the two sides enhance cooperation in the economy, trade, investment, tourism and climate change response, and at multilateral mechanisms.

He also shared his country’s efforts and policies to surmount economic challenges, noting that during that process, it hopes to foster economic ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and take part in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), with Vietnam being a member of both.

At the meeting with Speaker of the House of Representatives of Japan Hosoda Hiroyuki, Deputy PM Quang noted with satisfaction the strong, substantive, and fruitful development of the Vietnam – Japan extensive strategic partnership.

He asked the House of Representatives and its Speaker to continue helping to elevate friendship and cooperation to a new level. He also took this occasion to recommend the Japanese lower house increase delegation exchanges at all levels, including between young and women parliamentarians.

Stressing the importance of economic cooperation, he asked the Japanese side to help enhance the two economies’ connectivity to assist Vietnam in effectively engaging in new supply chains, support the implementation of the new-generation official development assistance (ODA) programme for Vietnam, and encourage small- and medium-sized enterprises of Japan to invest in and transfer technology to Vietnam.

Speaker Hosoda applauded the growth of bilateral relations, particularly their increasing cohesion via investment, trade, and manpower partnerships.

He also highly valued the important role and active contributions to Japan’s socioeconomic development by the nearly 500,000 Vietnamese people in the country, adding that he hopes to see more Vietnamese coming to study and work in his country.

The same day, Deputy PM Quang had a meeting with three co-chairmen of the Vietnam – Japan economic cooperation committee of KEIDANREN, namely senior advisor to Resonac Holdings Corporation Ichikawa Hideo, CEO of Sumitomo Corporation Hyodo Masayuki, and CEO of Sojitz Corporation Fujimoto Masayoshi.

He appreciated KEIDANREN’s contributions to promoting economic and trade partnerships, connecting the two countries’ enterprises, especially via the Vietnam – Japan Joint Initiative, giving useful advice to help improve the business climate in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese Government pays heed to protecting investors’ legitimate interests and harmonizing the State and enterprises’ interests. He suggested KEIDANREN continue bolstering investment ties and help the Southeast Asian nation effectively join supply chains of Japanese firms in the region and access capital sources for infrastructure development, the Green Innovation Fund, and the green finance sources of Japan.

The three Japanese co-chairmen welcomed Deputy PM Quang’s visit amid the 50th anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relationship.

They thanked the Vietnamese Government for its attention and support for investment and business activities of foreign enterprises, including those from Japan, over the past years./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency