(CPV) -On November 4, the Embassy of Sweden, in association with the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), organised a meeting to showcase 46 years of development cooperation between Sweden and Vietnam, titled “Looking back – Moving forward”.
Sweden has offered development cooperation to Vietnam since 1967, focusing on environmental issues, anti-corruption and public administration reform, human rights and the rule of law (including media freedoms), health, business and research cooperation.
Over the past few years, Sweden provided more than USD3.4 billion in aid to develop important fields in Vietnam such as health care, poverty reduction, judiciary, journalism, land management, anti-corruption, energy and climate change. Through development programmes, economic management and training projects, and administrative reform, Sweden’s development cooperation contributed to and raised the effectiveness of the economic reform process, law and the completion of legal policies system in Vietnam.
Sweden was the second largest ODA sponsor in 1970, the largest one in 1980 and the fourth largest one in 1990. In fact, in the 1980s, Sweden’s ODA made up the highest proportion of the total ODA capital Vietnam received.
In 2012, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) reviewed the cooperation and implementation process of Sweden’s supporting programmes with the assessment participation of Prof. Mark McGillivray, Dr. David Carpenter and Steward Norup. The results of the review showed the Sweden – Vietnam cooperation programme had improved health, education and common development for millions of Vietnamese people.
MPI Deputy Minister Nguyen The Phuong affirmed that Sweden and Vietnam have much cooperative potential which should be tapped and developed in various fields. With the experiences and achievements over the past 46 years, both countries can define new cooperative modes which are suitable to the orientations of each country to move toward equal partnership in the future. On this occasion, he also hoped that Sweden and Vietnam would continue to maintain and promote traditional cooperative friendly relations to tap existing potentials and strengths of both sides, to create the impetus for deeper and wider Vietnam – Sweden strategic cooperation.
Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Camilla Mellender pledged that the Embassy of Sweden will continue to promote the bilateral long-term traditional relations and connect the people of the two countries to exchange, cooperate and propose initiatives to further develop relations./.
Đăng ký: VietNam News