The Diplomat
Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang yesterday in Madrid encouraged Spanish companies to invest in sectors such as infrastructure, renewables, transport and high technology and announced the opening of a direct air route with Spain to develop tourism and trade.
Tran Luu Quang began his two-day official visit to Spain yesterday with a meeting with the Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, Reyes Maroto, with whom he discussed the deepening of the Strategic Partnership Framework, especially in trade and investment, and the implementation of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), as reported by the Vietnamese Government on its official website. As recalled by Vietnamese Ambassador to Madrid Hoang Xuan Hai, this is the highest-ranking visit to Spain by a Vietnamese Government leader since 2017.
The Deputy Prime Minister asked Spain to encourage Spanish enterprises to invest in Vietnam in “areas suited to the strengths and development needs of the two countries,” such as infrastructure, renewable energy, transportation, information technology or tourism. For her part, Reyes Maroto informed him that many Spanish companies are interested in investing in infrastructure and renewable energy in Vietnam and pledged to implement the Memorandum of Understanding on economic, trade and investment cooperation with Vietnam (2017) and promote a mechanism for regular exchanges.
The two sides also agreed to promote cooperation in tourism. In this regard, Tran Luu Quang requested Spain’s support in tourism training and sustainable tourism management and development and Reyes Maroto affirmed that the potential for cooperation between the two countries in tourism is huge and pledged to consider studying the possibility of opening direct flights to facilitate tourist travel.
Precisely, the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister announced later, during his participation with Reyes Maroto in a business meeting at the headquarters of the CEOE in Madrid, that a Vietnamese airline has committed to open a route to Spain to meet the needs of trade and tourism development between the two countries. As he explained to the businessmen, shortly after meeting with the Spanish minister, he telephoned the head of a national airline about the possibility of opening a route to Spain and received a positive response from the latter.
Tran Luu Quang also told the businessmen that his country has made significant progress in socio-economic recovery and development since the outbreak of the pandemic and assured that 67% of foreign companies highly appreciate the policies of the Vietnamese government and are committed to increase their investments. In this regard, he announced that his country is creating favorable conditions for Spanish companies to invest in priority areas such as high technology, infrastructure, renewable energy, high-tech agriculture, transportation and information technology.
In addition, Tran Luu Quang met with the President of Congress, Meritxell Batet, and held a meeting with representatives of the Vietnamese community in Spain, consisting of about 2,000 people concentrated mainly in Madrid and Barcelona.
