Deputy Prime Minister of Belarus Vladimir Semashko and his delegation on Friday attended the signing ceremony of business co-operation contracts in the northern province of Hung Yen.

Under the contract, Vietnamese and Belarusian firms will collaborate on setting up a joint auto venture and a dairy factory in Hung Yen.

The province is the first destination selected by the Belarusian government to start Maz Asia joint venture on manufacturing trucks and special-purpose vehicles worth US$60 million in Kim Dong District.

At the signing ceremony, representatives of the Belarusian delegation said they wanted to carry out a number of other projects, including a joint venture on bus assembly in Viet Nam, in which they would prioritise Hung Yen Province.

At the same time, Belarusian businesses will set up a dairy production factory with a capacity of 100-200 tonnes of milk per day.

Semashko said the signing of free trade agreements had opened up opportunities for cooperation between Viet Nam and Belarus.

He hoped the economy of the two countries would perform well and support each other in various fields. The two sides need to set up joint ventures to produce goods based on the principle of mutual benefit, he said.

Hung Yen Party Secretary Do Tien Sy highly appreciated the achievements of the Belarusian economy, especially in the field of automobile industry, agriculture, dairy food processing and agricultural products.

He expected Belarus to invest in high-tech projects in the province, promoting local development.

Nguyen Van Phong, chairman of Hung Yen People’s Committee, talked about the highlights and advantages of the province. Hung Yen has focused on investment in infrastructure and planning of industrial clusters and parks to create favourable conditions to attract investment, he said.

The province has 11 industrial parks, attracting more than 1,700 foreign and domestic projects with a total registered capital of more than US$4.48 billion.

Phong expected Belarusian businesses to pay attention to and study investment in a fertiliser factory in Hung Yen, in addition to training skilled labourers for the automobile manufacturing and assembling factory and diary production project, besides introducing some special agricultural products of Hung Yen in the Belarusian market.

He said the province would create favourable conditions and give the best incentive for the projects to help them become operational soon and achieve high efficiency. — VNS