The Hindu : Business : Vietnam PM identifies sectors for co-operation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jul 05, 2007
ePaper

Business

Business

Vietnam PM identifies sectors for co-operation

Special Correspondent

RPG group signs MoU with Vietnam National Chemical

— PHOTO: AP

STRENGTHENING TRADE TIES: Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (right) is greeted by the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in Kolkata on Wednesday.

KOLKATA: Nguyen Tan Dung, Prime Minister of Vietnam said that trade, education, science and technology were some of the areas which could be tapped for further co-operation between Vietnam and India.

Making Kolkata his first stop-over during his four-day maiden visit, he said his people remember the support given during the struggle for national independence. He mentioned the Bengali slogan ‘Your name, my name is the name Vietnam’ coined in West Bengal during those times and also noted that a road had been named after Ho Chi Minh in Kolkata.

The Prime Minister, with his 78-member business delegation, was addressing a business meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry. He said although many Indian businesses were now investing in Vietnam and India was one of Vietnam’s biggest investors, the level of co-operation was yet to match the potential of each country. He felt that India’s ‘Look East’ policy should help boost investment levels.

Even as the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, during a call on the Vietnamese premier at a city hotel, spoke of possible co-operation between the universities of the two countries on pisciculture and dairy farming, and also in agriculture, the Kolkata-based RP Goenka group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vietnam National Chemical Corporation for locating a joint venture carbon black plant in Vietnam.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung also visited the Jamshedpur plant of Tata Steel, which it was learnt was treating Vietnam as a potential source for one of its key raw materials — limestone. In a statement Tata Steel said at its Jamshedpur works, the Vietnamese premier was welcomed by Tata Steel Managing Director, B. Muthuraman, who said that it was the company’s intention to come up with a high quality steel plant and mining facility in Vietnam as soon as possible. He also thanked everyone in Vietnam Steel Corporation and the Vietnam Government for extending their support so that the MoU (signed in May, 2007) between Tata Steel and Vietnam Steel Corporation went through.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Dung said he was delighted to visit Jamshedpur on his first visit to India. He went round the various Tata Steel facilities and also planted a sapling. On the joint venture, Sanjiv Goenka, Chairman, Phillips Carbon Black (an RPG group company), said the project entailing a Rs. 225 crore investment would produce 50,000 tonnes of carbon black.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section