South Africa and Vietnam have discussed stepping up cooperation in communication as well as maintaining regular dialogue to share information.
This emerged during a meeting between communications minister Faith Muthambi and her Vietnamese counterpart, minister of information and communications Nguyen Bac Son, in Pretoria on Friday.
Muthambi told Bac Son and his delegation that she valued the connection between the two countries’ communications businesses which have the potential to deepen strategic relations.
“We need to formalise our bilateral cooperation on communications because we would like to sign an agreement with you on the training support programme of both our communicators and journalists.
“We would also like to step up our cooperation in both radio and television broadcasting so that we can share each other’s experience,” she said.
Bac Son echoed Muthambi’s suggestion of a training programme for communicators and journalists. He said he is also in the country to lure South African investors to take advantage of Vietnam’s communication business opportunities.
“We believe that there are a lot of things relating to communications that we need to learn from South Africa. We are keen to reinforce and expand our friendship because we want to enhance investment and communications business links,” he said.
Since the establishment of formal diplomatic relations in December 1993, a solid bilateral relationship has developed between South Africa and Vietnam, reflected in the 13 bilateral legal instruments in cooperation in the areas of foreign relations, trade and investment, defence, consular affairs, tourism, water resources, biodiversity conservation and protection, and combating crime.
According to the presidency, one of these instruments relates to the establishment in 2004 of the Inter-Governmental Partnership Forum for Economic, Trade, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Co-operation aimed at facilitating bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
According to official South African trade statistics, total trade between South Africa and Vietnam is growing year on year and amounted to R13,4bn in 2014, from R11,2 billion in 2013, out of a total of just under R107bn, with the 10 member states of the Association of South East Asian Nations. — SAnews