By IANS
New Delhi : Backed by an economy surging past the eight percent growth rate mark for the last two years, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung Friday held out an open invitation to corporate India to do more business in his country.
"Let me assure you personally that your business will prosper in Vietnam. We are a politically stable country and the conditions are favourable for your ventures to prosper," Dung said at a meeting of the India-Vietnam Business Forum organised by several chambers of commerce.
Dung, who is on the last leg of his three-day visit to India and has already visited Kolkata and Mumbai, said investment opportunities in Vietnam were immense with over 76 countries entering into 8,000 projects valued at over $70 billion.
Before embarking on his visit to India, Dung had said that despite the strong historical and cultural linkages both sides had not lived up to the potential of their ties and felt that greater economic engagement with New Delhi would help his country become a big player in the region.
It was a sentiment he reiterated here.
"The developments in bilateral cooperation have neither met the aspirations of the two peoples nor fully tapped the existing potential of the two countries. There are greater opportunities for deepening the cooperation between our economies," said Dung.
Despite a sluggish start in the mid-90s, trade and economic relations with India has seen renewed progress in recent years registering an increase of 20 percent every year, from $472 million in 1995 to $1 billion in 2006.
"With investment projects from Essar and Tata groups in steel manufacturing, India has become one of the ten leading investing countries in Vietnam this year," said Dung.
Accompanied by a delegation comprising 70 leading businessmen, Dung is expected to sign seven agreements in political and economic fields, as well in education and science and technology.
Commenting on the civilisational links, Dung also remarked that the demographic profile of both countries was similar because of their young populations.
"Almost 65 percent of Vietnam's 85 million people are less than 30. I understand that a substantial population in India too is under 34 years. This gives us more reason to cooperate closely and in nation building as we will have a large proportion of hard-working skilled employees for many years," he said.
Earlier, Minister Of State For External Affairs Anand Sharma said economic cooperation would increase following Dung's visit and trade was expected to treble within the next five years.