Meeting with Chairman of the Ha Noi People’s Committee of Viet Nam

The senior officials of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Viet Nam including both the Minister Counsellor, Mahesh Premathilaka, and Ambassador Prof A. Saj U. Mendis met with Mr. Tran Sy Thanh, Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee and former Deputy Chairman of National Assembly of Viet Nam. The Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee is the apex and extremely influential body focused on the administration and management of the entire city of Hanoi consisting well over seven million residents. Mr. Tran Sy Thanh too has been the Deputy Chairman of National Assembly Office, just before taking over as the Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee, which is constitutionally the highest Government organization as well as the highest-level representative body of the people of the entire country. The congenial and informative meeting with the Chairman of Hanoi People’s Committee lasted well over an hour at the Head Office Ha Noi People’s Committee

During the discussion, Ambassador Mendis commended the assistance and cooperation extended to Sri Lanka over the years as well as the support extended to Sri Lanka at a number of multilateral forums including the Human Rights Council. Further, Ambassador Mendis requested to facilitate visas, temporary resident cards and work permits for Sri Lankan expatriates since many of them are eager to live and work in Viet Nam, mostly in the high-skilled and professional disciplines. Whilst Mr. Tran Sy Thanh and his delegation, consisting senior officials from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Culture and Tourism, agreed to look favorably on the aforementioned issues given the most affable and close relations of the two countries, Mr. Tran Sy Thanh also broached the idea of having an MoU between Ha Noi and a select major city in Sri Lanka such Colombo or Kandy, thus further widening the relations in all aspects.

Both Mr. Tran Sy Thanh and Prof Mendis discussed and explored myriad of ways to further strengthen, deepen and elevate the relations between the two countries with particular focus on economic, investment and commercial activity. In this context, Mr. Tran Sy Thanh stated that direct connectivity between Hanoi/Ho Chi Minh city and Colombo would markedly and significantly increase not only the two-way tourism but also economic activity in all spheres and provinces. Prof Mendis stated that Viet Nam had over 13 million Vietnamese nationals travelling out of Viet Nam, mostly to ASEAN countries, Japan, China and South Korea as well as to other countries. He added if Sri Lanka could attract just a meager percentage of 0.2% of the Vietnamese overseas travelers, this figure would translate to 26,000. On the same note, Mendis stated that Sri Lanka has been chosen as amongst the five most desired and sought-after touristic destinations in 2018/2019, before the COVID pandemic, by well noted travel and tourism magazines as well as electronic media including but not limited to Lonely Planet, National Geographics, BBC Good Food and CNN.

Mr. Tran Sy Thanh too stated that the economic, investment and commercial potential the two countries have are yet to be exploited and unleashed. Further, both the Chairman and Ambassador added that Viet Nam has become a nation which attracts 8% of the GDP as foreign direct investments, which is one of the highest in any given nation, since Viet Nam received USD 21 billion in 2022 and anticipating USD 32 to 34 billion in 2023 respectively. With regard to trade, Viet Nam is one of the largest trading nations in the world ranked as the 15^th largest with a bilateral trade of USD 732 billion last year. This includes imports amounting to over USD 350 billion. Mendis did highlight that the total bilateral trade between the two countries is in the vicinity of less than USD 300 million with a large trade deficit on Sri Lankan side. The Chairman of Hanoi City, Mr. Tran Sy Thanh, stated that his Office would efficaciously implement and address the propositions and ideas with the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Hanoi, which were expressed by Prof Mendis.

Hanoi, Viet Nam
17^th July 2023