The President of the Republic of Seychelles, James Alix Michel, begins an official two-day visit to Vietnam on August 28, at the invitation of President Truong Tan Sang.  

The President of the Republic of Seychelles, James Alix Michel

The Seychelles President’s visit is expected to promote the cooperation between the two countries, as Seychelles considers Vietnam one of its three priority partners in Asia, along with China and India .

Vietnam and Seychelles established diplomatic ties on August 16, 1979 .

The two countries inked several economic, cultural and scientific-technical cooperation agreements in August 2010 and an agreement on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders in 2011.

They are actively working together to appoint a Seychelles honorary consul in Hanoi .

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Seychelles stood at about 2.2 million USD last year, of which Vietnam exports were worth around 1.3 million USD, with main products being rice, chemicals and fishing nets.

Seychelles has proposed that the two countries step up cooperation in tourism, fishing, trade, agriculture, environment and maritime transport. It also wants to recruit more Vietnamese workers for the tourism sector.

Seychelles leads seven African investors in Vietnam with eight projects capitalised at 33.6 million USD by June this year, mostly focusing on cement products, plastics, industrial springs and canned food./.

(VNA)