Vietnam and Turkey agreed to step up investment and cooperation to raise bilateral trade to US$4 billion during a press conference following talks between Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz in Ankara on Wednesday.

Co-chairing the press briefing following the talks, part of the Vietnamese government leader’s visit to Turkey between Tuesday and Thursday, both sides reached a consensus on continuing to intensify their political, economic, and diplomatic ties.

The two leaders agreed to enhance the practical and effective economic cooperation by opening markets to each other’s agricultural produce and other products in which their two countries have strengths, boosting negotiations over their free trade agreement, and increasing the frequency of cargo flights between the two nations.

Turkey was also committed to supporting Vietnam in developing the Halal industry, helping improve their two-way trade.

Halal refers to food products and services that adhere to Muslim law.

Turkey is currently the largest direct investor from the Middle East in Vietnam with a total registered capital of nearly $1 billion.

PM Chinh expected Turkish enterprises to channel capital into industrial manufacturing, hi-tech agriculture, consumption, green economy, and innovation sectors in the Southeast Asian country.

Regarding cooperation in national defense and security, the two sides will promote information exchanges and collaboration in crime fighting, tech training, and search and rescue missions.

The two leaders agreed to foster the exchange of information about each other’s large tourism events and simplify visa procedures to support tourists of the two countries.

PM Chinh suggested Turkish firms use more Vietnamese laborers at projects where they are contractors.

The Vietnamese prime minister also asked the Turkish government to make conditions more favorable for Vietnamese citizens living in Turkey so that they can contribute to this country's development and the Vietnam-Turkey bilateral relations.

Speaking at the press conference, Vice President Yilmaz hailed Vietur, a Turkish firm-led consortium which won a large bidding package of the Long Thanh International Airport project in Vietnam’s southern Dong Nai Province.

He expressed his wish that the two countries would strengthen investment cooperation in the years to come.

He also thanked Vietnam for supporting Turkey in addressing the aftermath of an earthquake in February this year, especially a donation worth VND14.6 billion ($600,000).

The Turkish vice president expected the two countries to strengthen cooperation in trade, tourism, and diplomacy.

PM Chinh's official trip is the first visit to Turkey by a Vietnamese prime minister and is the first high-level delegation exchange between the two countries over the past five years.

The visit celebrates 45 years of the Vietnam-Turkey diplomatic ties.

In the year to October, the two countries’ bilateral trade inched up 13.6 percent year on year to $1.9 billion.

Of this, Vietnam exported $1.5 billion worth of products to Turkey, up over 16 percent year on year, while importing $369.2 million worth of goods from Turkey, up 8.5 percent.

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