China's NW province vows to deepen economic exchanges with Vietnam

China's northwestern Shaanxi province is committed to facilitating economic and trade cooperation with Vietnam, said the provincial party chief here on Wednesday.

"Shaanxi and Vietnam are complementary in many ways and boast great potential for cooperation," said Zhao Leji, secretary of the Communist Party of China Shaanxi Provincial Committee in an interview with Xinhua.

Zhao is heading a delegation in Vietnam for party exchanges and trade promotion. A fair was held on Wednesday with participation of Shaanxi and Vietnamese businessmen. Contracts valued at 30 million U.S. dollars were signed at the fair.

Zhao said that Shaanxi is an important inland industrial base in China, as well as a key base for scientific research and human resources development. Shaanxi's economy has been developing fast with annual growth rate of 13 percent in the past few years.

The province has advantage in equipment manufacturing, high- tech, energy and chemical, tourism, agricultural, and stockbreeding sectors, said Zhao.

As this year marks the 60th anniversary in China-Vietnam diplomatic ties and Year of Friendship between the two countries, Zhao urged Shaanxi and Vietnam to take this opportunity to increase economic exchanges.

Zhao said the two sides could enhance cooperation in trade, infrastructure, tourism and cultural activities.

Chinese official statistics showed that bilateral trade between Shaanxi and Vietnam stood at nearly 50 billion U.S. dollars last year. Vietnam mainly imported machinery and electronic products, agricultural products, pharmaceutical products, metal and textile from Shaanxi.

Zhao said to boost bilateral trade, Shaanxi should continue to export these products while increasing imports from Vietnam.

To help Vietnam develop infrastructure, a bottleneck for the country's development, Zhao encouraged Shaanxi companies to help Vietnam build railway, telecommunication network and hydropower projects.

Zhao said Shaanxi and Vietnam are both rich in tourism resources. The two sides could deepen cooperation in developing tourism products and tourism market.

More cultural, sports, education and health cooperation activities could also be held between the two sides, said Zhao.

He said although Shaanxi is not as close to Vietnam as many other provinces in China, the two sides could still see fruitful outcomes in cooperation once the complementary characteristics are fully utilized.

Source: Xinhua