The upcoming official visit to Viet Nam by Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte from June 5-6 is expected to foster the Viet Nam-Italy strategic partnership in various fields, ranging from politics, diplomacy, defence-security to economics, trade, investment, education and culture.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) meets Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on the sidelines of expanded G7 Summit (Source: VNA)

Viet Nam and Italy set up bilateral diplomatic ties on March 23, 1973 and promoted them to a strategic partnership in 2013. The two countries have regularly exchanged political delegations, notably the visits to Italy by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong in 2013, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung in 2014, and President Tran Dai Quang in 2016, as well as those to Viet Nam by Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in 2014 and President Sergio Mattarella in 2015.

The two countries have maintained bilateral cooperation mechanisms such as the deputy foreign ministerial political consultation, the deputy ministerial defence policy dialogue and the joint commission on economic cooperation. They also support each other at multilateral forums and organisations like the United Nations (UN), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).

At present, Italy is Viet Nam’s fourth biggest trade partner in the European Union (EU), while the latter is the former’s largest trader in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Two-way trade tripled within the past decade from 1.5 billion USD in 2009 to more than 4.6 billion USD in 2018. In the first three months of this year, Viet Nam’s exports to Italy reached 918 million USD.

As of late 2017, Italy ranked 32nd out of the 128 nations and territories investing in Viet Nam with 86 projects worth 388 million USD, mainly in manufacturing and processing, footwear and construction.

The Italian Government has put Viet Nam into a list of the 10 emerging markets to prioritise developing trade and investment relations.

In the 1980s, Italy began providing official development assistance (ODA) for Viet Nam in the fields of water supply and drainage, environmental protection, human resources development and health. Currently, the Italian Government is supporting Viet Nam in 11 ongoing projects and six pending others with a total committed capital of over 100 million EUR.

Bilateral cooperation in other fields such as culture, education, tourism, and people-to-people exchanges has also been enhanced.

The two countries have signed 72 education and training agreements. Every year, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs grants several scholarships for Vietnamese students and post-graduates, and opens Italian-language courses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

Last year, the number of Italian tourists to Viet Nam surpassed the 65,000 mark for the first time.

(Source: VNA)