At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien welcomed the visit of the Vice President on the occasion of the two countries' solemn 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations (1971-2021). The Minister appreciated the valuable assistance of the Swiss Government over the past 30 years to Vietnam for socio-economic development through non-refundable aid, including development assistance projects. commercial and industrial development for the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien reviewed the economic development, trade and bilateral cooperation between Vietnam and the Swiss Federation over the past 50 years, and emphasized that Vietnam always strives to develop the economy, seek international integration, and always being a reliable partner and an active and responsible member in the international community.

For his part, Mr. Ignazio Cassis highly appreciated Vietnam's achievements in the fight against the Covid-19 epidemic with impressive figures on economic growth over the past year despite Vietnam's many difficulties caused by the epidemic.

The Swiss side highly appreciates the close cooperation of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Vietnam, especially the active participation in the negotiation process of the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the European Free Trade Agreement - EFTA. Switzerland is a member (EFTA includes 4 countries: Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein). Mr. Cassis expressed his wish that the negotiation process for the Agreement would continue to be accelerated, and that the two sides would reach consensus and resolve any remaining issues soon, and proceed to the conclusion of the negotiations as desired by the senior leaders of the two sides.

Both sides also expressed optimism about the strong development of bilateral trade and investment relationship in recent years. According to Swiss statistics, the total two-way trade turnover in the last 5 years, including 2020 has always achieved an average growth rate of nearly 20% per year. More and more Swiss companies are investing and doing business in Vietnam. Among the large Swiss corporations investing in Vietnam, Nestlé (food and beverage), Novatis/Ciba - Sandoz (pharmaceuticals), Roche (pharmaceuticals), ABB (electrical equipment, substation construction), Sulzer (mechanical, electrical equipment), SGS (inspection), Escatec (electronic equipment), Ringier (printing), André/ CIE (commercial) and some other enterprises . These enterprises not only create about 20,000 jobs for the Vietnamese market, contribute to the state budget every year, but also apply modern management methods, training, and technology transfer to improve the skills, labor and production capacity of the domestic industries. As of June 2021, Switzerland has 172 projects with a total registered capital of 1.9 billion USD, ranking 20th out of 140 countries and territories having direct investment capital in Vietnam.

On this occasion, Minister Nguyen Hong Dien also expressed his gratitude to Switzerland's support in supporting the Ministry of Industry and Trade in implementing the technical assistance project "Trade policy and export promotion", one of the key projects in Switzerland's cooperation strategy 2021-2024 on Vietnam's economic development. The Minister affirmed that the cooperation strategy implemented by the Swiss Government is very consistent with the strategic orientations of socio-economic development in the next 10 years of Vietnam in general and the Industry and Trade sector in particular, especially the Project: Industry and Trade restructuring project for the period of 2021-2030.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien hoped that the Swiss side would continue to support and prioritize support to effectively promote cooperation programs and projects in the fields of industry and trade, especially in the fields of industry and trade. Vietnam's goal in developing fundamental industries such as materials, chemicals, processing, manufacturing and supporting industries, to move towards the goal of increasing the participation of Vietnamese enterprises and placing Vietnamese products in the global value chain.

Minister Nguyen Hong Dien believes that with a very active and open exchange on many issues at the meeting and agreement on views, directions and specific measures, the two sides can strengthen the relationship between the two sides. further economic and trade cooperation in the near future and soon achieve good results in the negotiation and signing of a Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EFTA countries.

At the end of the meeting, the two sides affirmed to continue working closely to promptly solve problems that may arise, as well as effectively implementing cooperation activities between the two sides, and contributing to better the relationship.