(VOVworld) – Vietnam and Algeria have pledged to increase two-way trade to 1 billion USD. At a meeting on Monday in the Algerian capital city of Algiers, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal agreed to boost delegation exchanges and collaboration on international forums as well as support each other in participating in international organizations, especially the UN’s.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmalek Sellal agreed to boost delegation exchanges and collaboration on international forums (photo:VNA)

Regarding the East Sea issue, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal reiterated Algeria’s support for resolving disputes through peaceful means and dialogues based on the international law. The two leaders agreed on measures to improve the performance of the Vietnam-Algeria Intergovernmental Committee, facilitating businesses of the two countries in implementing projects in industry, agriculture, food processing, oil and gas, mining, textiles, infrastructure construction, finance and banking, IT, telecommunications, and tourism. Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said: "We agreed that Vietnam and Algeria should enhance cooperation to upgrade the economics, trade, investment, and tourism relations into a higher level. We aim to increase two-way trade to 1 billion USD in the near future. Algeria recognized Vietnam as a full market economy. Vietnam is willing to support Algeria’s accession to the WTO without any negotiation with Vietnam."

At a meeting with Abdelkader Bensalah, Speaker of the Algerian Parliament's Upper, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam wants to strengthen cooperation with Algeria in economics, trade, and investment. (Photo: VGP)

 Algerian Prime Minister Sellal said he hoped that Vietnam would assist Algeria to revive its textile and food processing sectors. Algeria designates around 30,000 hectares of farmland for cooperation with Vietnam in rice cultivation and husbandry. He welcomed early arrival of Vietnamese experts and farmers to start this project: "Vietnamese enterprises working on oil and gas are welcomed in Algeria. Apart from joint venture projects between Vietnam’s oil and gas corporation Petrovietnam and Algerian government-owned company Sonatrach, Algeria will license Petrovietnam to expand on-going projects and develop others in different areas. Algeria will also create favorable conditions for Vietnamese laborers to participate in housing projects and projects in mining where Algeria holds great potential."

The two Prime Ministers agreed to boost cooperation in human resources, education and training, health care, culture, art, sports, judiciary, national defense, military technology, security, intelligence, and counter-terrorism. They expressed their hope that businesses of the two countries would become a bridge to get a closer approach to markets in Middle East – North Africa and ASEAN.

Two leaders hoped Vietnam and Algeria would continue to support each other at multilateral forums (photo: VGP)

At the end of their meeting, the two leaders witnessed the signing of memorandum of understanding on tourism and healthcare cooperation, and a culture cooperative program in the period of 2016-2018.

Also on Monday, PM Dung met with Abdelkader Bensalah, Speaker of the Algerian Parliament's Upper House. Mr. Bensalah pledged the Algerian Parliament's support in facilitating bilateral cooperation, especially on issues of mutual concern at regional and international levels.

PM Dung said Vietnam wants to strengthen cooperation with Algeria in economics, trade, and investment. The two leaders hoped Vietnam and Algeria would continue to support each other at multilateral forums as well as within international organizations.