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General News of Wednesday, 11 August 2021

Source: guardian.ng

'Nigeria, Vietnam parley will boost rice, cashew production, others' - Osinbajo

Yemi Osinbajo Yemi Osinbajo

With shared opportunities in the agricultural sector, especially rice, cashew and processing, and in technology, Nigeria and Vietnam could benefit from effective collaboration and deepen their relationship.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said this on Monday at the Presidential Villa during a courtesy visit by the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to Nigeria, Luong Quoe.

“There are specific areas where we have talked about in the past; agriculture is one. There was also talk about cashew processing, rice growing and rice processing where Vietnam has shown great innovation and great success. We think that these are areas where we certainly can do a lot more with cooperation,” Osinbajo said.
He noted that other areas of collaboration would come up in the interaction of young people actively engaged within the technology space in both countries.

“I know that Vietnam is doing interesting things in the technology and telecoms sectors. I think that we should look for opportunities where young people in Nigeria and Vietnam can interact, especially in technology and share ideas, innovation and different attainments. I certainly would like us to explore that possibility, especially in the area of technology with our young people,” the Vice President said.

He thanked the Vietnamese government for the donation of medical supplies comprising of droplet resistant and antibacterial fabric masks, medical facemasks and Real-Time Reverse Transcriptase (RT-PCR) diagnostic panel for SARS-COV 2 to the Nigerian Mission in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The donation also included 100,000 high-quality four-fly anti-bacterial medical facemasks by a Vietnamese pharmaceutical company known as ANH THU Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company–PSD Group.

In his remarks, Ambassador Quoe commended Nigeria’s role in Africa, which he described, “as being enormous”. He said Vietnam “would always wish to have Nigeria’s support in multilateral forums, most importantly the United Nations.”

Quoe also noted that the economic potential between both countries is huge and hoped Nigeria “would soon recognise Vietnam as a country of full market economy and Nigeria and Vietnam would sign an agreement on investment, promotion and protection.”

The Ambassador disclosed that “five to seven thousand Nigerians” are studying and helping in the development of the economy of Vietnam and requested the consideration of direct flights between both nations.