Vietnam is an important factor in India’s “ Look East” policy and both nations are giving fresh impetus to the process of strengthening economic cooperation, said Indian Consul General Jitendra Nath Misra at a ceremony in HCM City on January 22 to mark the 60th anniversary of India’s National Day.

The Indian diplomat said that India is happy with the strategic dialogue held in October 2009 between the two countries towards promoting cooperation in anti-terrorism, security, civil nuclear, national defense, trade, education, culture, science and technology, industry and agriculture.

 

Mr Misra also expressed optimism about the prospects for long-term trade cooperation. 14 major Indian trade delegations visited Vietnam last year to seek investment opportunities and India’s investment in Vietnam remains first among Southeast Asian nations. More than 50 Indian companies and two Indian banks have opened representative offices in HCM City.

 

India has of the highest levels of disbursed capital for investment projects in Vietnam and the country has given priority to increasing cooperation with Vietnam in education, culture and human resource development. India’s NIIT group has already trained 8,000 programmers at 34 Vietnamese training centres and it will continue to train 7,000 Vietnamese programmers each year. Meanwhile, India’s Aptech group has trained 30,000 Vietnamese programmers at 28 training centres.

 

Vice Chairman of the HCM City municipal People’s Council Huynh Thanh Lap stressed the importance of boosting bilateral cooperation in agriculture, fishing and maritime transport in the future and thanked the Indian business community in HCM City for their support for charitable activities and scholarships for poor pupils.

 

For years, the Consulate General of India has been the biggest sponsor for charity fairs of HCM City’s Consular Club.

 

(VOVNews)