President hosts welcome ceremony for Indonesian counterpart

Hanoi, (VNA)– President Tran Dai Quang hosted an official welcome ceremony in Hanoi on September 11 for his Indonesian counterpart Joko Widodo, who is making a State-level visit to Vietnam on September 11 and 12.

After the ceremony, the two presidents held talks at the Presidential Palace in Hanoi.

This is President Widodo’s first visit to Vietnam after his assumption of the presidency in 2014.

The visit takes place in the context of new progress in the Vietnam-Indonesia strategic partnership following the official visit to Indonesia by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong in August 2017.

President Widodo’s trip is expected to help set the orientation for bilateral cooperation in the next years and aims to develop economic cooperation and expand market access between the two countries.

Vietnam and Indonesia established diplomatic relations on December 30, 1955.

In recent years, trade between the two countries has seen encouraging growth. Two-way trade value rose to 6.5 billion USD in 2017 and 4.7 billion USD for the first seven month of this year. The two sides are striving to bring it to 10 billion USD in 2020.

In terms of investment ties, as of June this year, Indonesia ranked fifth among ASEAN members and 30th among 126 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, with 71 projects valued at 514 million USD. Indonesian investors mainly operate in oil and gas exploration and exploitation, coal mining, banking, hotels, wood processing, fibre production and garment making in Vietnam.

Vietnamese investors are running 13 projects with a combined value of 54.7 million USD in Indonesia, focusing on oil and gas and mining.-VNA