President Triet welcomes Saudi Arabian investment

President Nguyen Minh Triet (left) receives Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. — VNA/VNS Photo Nguyen Khang

HA NOI — Viet Nam welcomes investment from Saudi Arabian businesses, President Triet said while receiving Saudi Arabian Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud yesterday in Ha Noi.

Viet Nam would create favourable conditions and improve its investment environment so that more Saudi Arabian investors would be lured to the country and they could do business here more efficiently, Triet affirmed.

He said the country was thankful for the valuable support that Saudi Arabia had given the Vietnamese people who had been affected by recent floods and storms.

Triet said he believed the Prince's visit to Viet Nam would help develop the bilateral, friendly and co-operative relationship between the countries, which was flourishing.

The President recalled his memories of a recent trip to Saudi Arabia, which led to the signing of a number of co-operation agreements.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal said the President's visit to Saudi Arabia had helped deepen the relationship between the two countries. The Prince added his visit would help boost bilateral co-operation in many fields, particularly in economics, trade and investment.

Despite the world financial crisis and economic recession, Viet Nam's economy had been growing well, the Prince said, and the country had become an attractive investment destination for not only Asian businesses but also for countries from around the world.

Saudi Arabia has invested in projects in Viet Nam in banking, hospitality and tourism and will continue to pour money into these fields.

Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal said he highly appreciated the industriousness of the Vietnamese people working in Saudi Arabia, and affirmed his country was ready to support Viet Nam in charity programmes.

President Triet presented a Friendship Order from the Vietnamese State to the Prince for his contributions to building the friendship and multifaceted co-operation between the two countries.

On the same day, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal met with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

In the meeting, Dung applauded the Prince and Saudi Arabian businesses' ideas of co-operation with Viet Nam in investment and trade sectors, saying that these sectors had enormous potential that the two sides could take advantage of.

He affirmed that Viet Nam was ready to welcome and support Saudi Arabian investors' operations in the country, particularly in tourism, hospitality, oil and gas, and labour.

Dung suggested the two sides sign a strategy of co-operation in the oil and gas field and further improve the efficiency of co-operation in the export of Vietnamese labourers to work in Saudi Arabia soon.

For his part, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal expressed his pleasure at the rapid development and the efficiency of the friendly ties between the two countries and high valued efforts Viet Nam had made to cope with the world financial crisis.

The Prince said the success should be attributed to the Vietnamese Government and people. — VNS