| Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Head of the Permanent Representative of Vietnam Delegation in Geneva, poses for a photo with officials and staff of the Embassy (Source: VNA). |
Ambassador Le Thi Tuyet Mai, Head of the Permanent Delegation of Vietnam in Geneva, officials and employees of the Vietnamese representative agencies, Ms. Anjuska Weil, President of the Swiss-Vietnamese Friendship Association and many friends Switzerland also attended.
Speaking at the meeting, Vietnamese Ambassador to Switzerland Phung The Long informed about Vietnam’s socio-economic situation in the past year. Although the world situation changed unpredictably and difficulties piled up, Vietnam’s economy recovered and developed well. Macro-economy is basically stable, inflation is controlled at 3.25%. Especially, the economy grew over 8%, the highest in the past 11 years. The scale of the economy has exceeded 400 billion USD, per capita income is over 4110 USD, trade turnover is over 732 billion USD.
The relationship between Vietnam and Switzerland is increasingly consolidated and developed. The two countries regularly meet and exchange delegations at high levels. Most recently, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha had a very successful meeting with Federal Economy Minister Guy Parmelin on the occasion of attending the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.
The two sides agreed to continue creating conditions to further promote trade, investment, science and technology and innovation relations. In particular, the Swiss Government is committed to supporting Vietnam’s transition to a circular economy, and continues to support and create conditions for the Vietnamese community in Switzerland to stabilize their lives and contribute more and more. for the communities in which they live and work.
Trade relations between the two countries will reach 2.3 billion USD in 2022, an increase of nearly 2% and Vietnam has a trade surplus. Vietnam is Switzerland’s third largest economic partner in Southeast Asia. The two countries are actively negotiating to soon sign a Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Association, including Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Ambassador Phung The Long highly appreciated the Vietnamese community in Switzerland, which is always attached to the homeland and has many rich and practical activities to contribute efforts and wisdom to help the people in the country. The Ambassador wished that the Vietnamese community would be more and more crowded and united, their life would be more and more prosperous, and they would integrate well into life in their second homeland.