Luanda — Issues linked to increased bilateral cooperation in various fields were analyzed, Tuesday in Luanda, in an audience granted by the vice-president, Fernando da Piedade dos Santos, to the ambassador of Vietnam in Angola, Pham Tien Nhien.

After the meeting, the Vietnamese diplomat who is at the end of his three-year mission, told the press that there is "some progress" in cooperation and friendship relations between the two governments, reinforced primarily with the visit by the Angolan vice president to Vietnam, last February.

For Pham Tien Nhien, cooperation in the political sphere especially since entry into force on June 8 of the suppression of visas in diplomatic and service passports, in both countries, as well as agriculture and trade relations, were the areas that best progress recorded.

He said that recently there was in Angola a Vietnamese expert linked to agriculture with the aim of examining a rice cultivation project in the province of Malanje which can be extended to other regions of the country.

He indicated that last year the trade between Angola and Vietnam reached a value of USD 76 million.

Other Vietnamese exports to Angola are food products and chemicals, plastics, metals, paper, trucks, computers, electronic parts, various machinery, furniture, appliances, among others.

In its turn, Angola exported especially to Vietnam oil, wood and raw materials and for the manufacture of fabrics.

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam recognized Angola one day after its independence, on 11 November 1975, when they established their diplomatic relations and opened its embassy in Luanda in the following year in 1976.