Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Bình (right) receives Vice Governor of Japan's Wakayama Prefecture Shimo Hiroshi in Hà Nội on Thursday. — VNA/VNS Photo

HÀ NỘI — Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Phạm Bình Minh has said Việt Nam is keen on promoting partnership among localities of Việt Nam and Japan, considering it a substantial and effective cooperation channel for both sides to beef up bilateral ties in various fields.

At a reception for Vice Governor of Japan's Wakayama Prefecture Shimo Hiroshi in Hà Nội on Thursday, the official highlighted that the Việt Nam-Japan extensive strategic partnership was in its prime with high political trust despite impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and underlined that Japan had been a leading and important economic partner of Việt Nam.

Bilateral ties in trade, investment, labour and education-training had been fruitful, he noted.

The Deputy PM said that partnerships between localities of the two countries had deepened.

He said he hoped Wakayama would continue to effectively implement signed agreements with Việt Nam, establish partnerships with more Vietnamese localities, encourage local businesses to invest more in Việt Nam, strengthen cooperation in personnel training, and expand the reception of Vietnamese practitioners and labourers to work in the prefecture.

For his part, the Japanese official said the prefecture was implementing an agricultural and fisheries cooperation agreement with the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and a deal in the field of industry with the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The locality had also strengthened people-to-people exchange with Việt Nam, including a “lotus” exchange programme between Kinokawa City and Quảng Nam Province, which was initiated by the Chairman of the Japan – Vietnam Parliamentary Friendship Alliance Nikai Toshihiro, aiming to make the lotus a symbol of spiritual connections between Vietnamese and Japanese people, he said.

He added that Wakayama was hastening the formation of a Japan-Việt Nam Friendship Association in the locality and he would be the first leader of the association. — VNS