On the evening of October 29, in Riyadh, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, his wife and a high-ranking Vietnamese delegation met with officials, staff of the Embassy and Vietnamese engineers in Saudi Arabia.
Also attending were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son and members of the working delegation.
Reporting to the Prime Minister and the delegation, Vietnamese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Dang Xuan Dung expressed his pride that in the world's unstable situation, Vietnam is still a bright spot, highly appreciated by international friends, with a stable political and social situation, high economic growth, and an attractive destination for global investment.
According to the Ambassador, the Prime Minister's visit is an important new milestone in bilateral relations and will certainly create new momentum to strongly promote relations between the two countries in the coming time.
Over the past year, the Embassy has successfully implemented all aspects of its work, including economic, trade and investment fields, with the recent opening of a booth promoting Vietnamese Halal products and preparations to organize a Vietnamese culture and cuisine week here.
This has contributed to the total bilateral trade turnover reaching 2.7 billion USD in 2023; 2.21 billion USD in the first 9 months of 2024, of which Vietnam had a trade surplus of over 140 million USD.
The Embassy also does a good job of protecting citizens, and is ready to coordinate with relevant agencies to organize the evacuation of citizens if the situation in the region becomes more unstable and complicated.
Notably, Ambassador Dang Xuan Dung said that it is very encouraging that while previously Vietnamese workers in Saudi Arabia were mainly domestic helpers, now there are more and more skilled workers, including engineers. In particular, there are currently 45 Vietnamese engineers participating in all production stages of Ceer Company - the first electric vehicle company in Saudi Arabia, with an income of 8-16 thousand USD per month.
The engineers sincerely thank the attention of the Party and State leaders and directly the "daily" support and companionship of the Embassy with overseas Vietnamese in work and life; affirm that they will always try to do good work, contribute to their homeland and country, and bring Vietnamese intelligence and culture to international friends.
The engineers made a number of recommendations and proposals related to promoting bilateral economic and labor cooperation, promoting Vietnamese culture and cuisine, opening direct flights from Vietnam to the Middle East, and recognizing driver's licenses between the two countries, etc.
It is known that Vietnam and Saudi Arabia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on labor cooperation (January 2006). Currently, there are nearly 4,000 Vietnamese workers here.
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said he was very proud and moved by the sincere, dedicated, and responsible opinions, providing valuable information for the Government and ministries to lead, direct, and work better in the coming time.
The Prime Minister expressed his sympathy for the difficulties faced by Vietnamese workers working far from home and family, especially in the post-COVID-19 pandemic context, with conflicts in many places, disruptions in supply chains, production, etc.
Regarding bilateral relations, the Prime Minister assessed that the potential for relations with the Middle East - Africa region and Saudi Arabia is still very large. Along with that, we have not paid due attention to the Halal market, an area in which Vietnam has many strengths.
The Head of Government said that Vietnam and Saudi Arabia will continue to strengthen political trust, exchange delegations at all levels, and are aiming to upgrade relations, negotiate free trade agreements, and investment protection agreements, thereby promoting trade, investment, labor cooperation, and cooperation in areas such as oil and gas exploitation and processing, digital transformation, energy conversion, and Halal products. These will create favorable conditions for Vietnamese workers to work in Saudi Arabia.
Regarding the domestic situation, the Prime Minister said that in the context of many difficulties and challenges, Vietnam's economy still maintained high growth compared to the region and the world, the macro economy was stable, and major balances were ensured. Public debt, government debt, national foreign debt and state budget deficit were well controlled, lower than the permitted limit. The material and spiritual life of the people was improved. Politics was stable, national defense and security were strengthened, foreign affairs and integration were expanded.
In the coming time, in the context of continuing difficulties and challenges rather than opportunities and advantages, we must continue to try harder, innovate more strongly, with a strategic and further vision, especially in building and perfecting institutions to mobilize all resources for development.
The Prime Minister highly appreciated, acknowledged and commended the efforts and results of the work of the Vietnamese Embassy in Saudi Arabia, hoping that the Embassy would continue to do a good job in protecting the legitimate rights and interests of citizens in the fastest, most timely and most effective way, while strengthening the connection between the Embassy and the people, so that the Embassy and the community can become reliable supports when people encounter difficulties and hardships, "helping each other in times of need".
The Prime Minister suggested promoting the establishment of the Vietnamese Association in Saudi Arabia; promoting information, images, country, people, culture, cuisine... of Vietnam in appropriate and effective forms.
Responding to the people's recommendations, the Prime Minister said that the connection between people has gone through many different stages, such as by means of transport, through telecommunications and is entering the stage of connection through artificial intelligence, cloud computing... However, the transportation of people and goods by means of transport is still irreplaceable.
In the context that Vietnam's relations with Saudi Arabia and the Middle East will continue to develop strongly, and the need for communication and transport connections will increase rapidly, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Transport, Vietnam Airlines Corporation and airlines to study and deploy direct flights to this region to facilitate travel and communication.
The Prime Minister also hopes that Vietnamese workers in Saudi Arabia will continue to introduce and persuade their relatives to come work here; at the same time, relevant agencies and units will have programs, orientations, and systematically implement training activities and send workers to work there.
I hope that you will continue to promote the spirit of self-reliance, self-improvement, efforts, solidarity, unity, mutual love, overcoming barriers, difficulties and challenges to rise up; The Prime Minister said that during this visit, he asked the UAE side to continue creating favorable conditions for you to continue living, studying and working conveniently and stably, protecting your legitimate and legal rights and interests.
The Prime Minister requested that if people have any difficulties or problems, they should continue to propose to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy to resolve them according to their authority; for issues under the Government's authority, they should report to the Government.
Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/thu-tuong-yeu-cau-nhanh-chong-kip-thoi-hieu-qua-nhat-trong-bao-ho-cong-dan-382408.html
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