Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has stated Nigeria and Vietnam stand to benefit from effective collaboration in agriculture and technology to deepen their friendly relationships.
He spoke on Monday at the Presidential Villa during a courtesy visit by Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to Nigeria, Luong Quoe.
“There are specific areas where we have talked about in the past, agriculture is one. There was also talk about cashew processing and rice growing and rice processing where Vietnam has shown great innovation and great success. We think that these are areas where we certainly can do a lot more with cooperation,” he said.
The Vice President also noted other areas of collaboration between Nigeria and Vietnam would be in the interaction of young people actively engaged within the technology space in both countries.
According to him: “I know that Vietnam is doing interesting things in technology and telecoms sectors.
“I think that we should look for opportunities where young people in Nigeria and Vietnam can interact especially in technology and share ideas, innovation, and their different attainments.
“I certainly would like us to explore that possibility, especially in the area of technology with our young people.”
Osinbajo further stated that there was plenty room for cooperation, and one of such ways is being effective in establishing relationships and ensuring the relationships endure if both countries are “able to structure the Bi-national Commission and then also some of the economic collaboration through agriculture and technology.”
The Vice President thanked the Vietnamese Government for the kind donation of medical supplies comprising of Droplet Resistant and Antibacterial Fabric Masks, Medical Face Masks and Real–Time Reverse Transcriptase (RT-PCR) Diagnostic Panel for SARS-COV 2 to the Nigerian Mission in Hanoi, Vietnam, in addition, to the donation of 100,000 high-quality 4-Fly Anti- Bacterial Medical face masks by a Vietnamese Pharmaceutical Company known as ANH THU Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company–PSD Group.
Ambassador Quoe commended Nigeria’s role in Africa “as being enormous” and stated that Vietnam “would always wish to have Nigeria’s support in multilateral forums, most importantly the United Nations.”
He also mentioned the economic potential between both countries is huge and hopes Nigeria “would soon recognize Vietnam as a country of full market economy and Nigeria and Vietnam would sign an agreement on investment, promotion, and protection.”
The Ambassador added: “There are five to seven thousand Nigerians studying and helping in the development of the economy of Vietnam” and also requested the consideration of direct flights between Nigeria and Vietnam.
Also present at the meeting was the Minister for Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama and other top government officials.
