Ambassador gives Vietnam presentation in Washington

VNA - The Night of Embassies under the theme “Vietnam” held by the University Club of Washington DC and the Embassy of Vietnam in U.S, on May 8 was packed with almost an 100-strong audience, including entrepreneurs, professors and lawyers. Vietnamese Ambassador Le Cong Phung focused his lecture on relations between Vietnam and the US , which, he said, has made a huge leap forward in the recent past. Political relations witnessed an unprecedented progress with four high-level visits taking place in four consecutive years. Two-way trade revenues multiplied from 1.5 billion USD in 2001 when the Bilateral Trade Agreement took effect to over 15 billion USD in 2008. US businesses have invested 4.2 billion USD in 428 projects in Vietnam , ranking 12 th among foreign investors. The Vietnamese diplomat said he expected the world’s largest economy would soon become the biggest investor in the Southeast Asian nation while bilateral trade revenues would surge to 30 billion USD. He said he hoped that there would be additional dozens of thousands of Vietnamese students pursuing their education in the US and in return, more and more American students would arrive in Vietnam for studies. “The Vietnamese nation has the traditions of clemency, hospitality, we are willing to befriend all other countries the world over and the country also has abundant young labour force,” Phung emphasised. He also pointed out other advantages of Vietnam , including political stability and social security.