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President
Patil visits Vietnam Museum
Ho
Chi Minh City: Fascinated by Vietnam's puppet artisans
and impressed by the preservation of historical artefacts
in the Museum of Natural History in Ho Chi Minh City,
Indian President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil said her recent
visit to the museum had been an interesting
and instructive experience. She said the treasures preserved
here provided a deep insight into the history of Vietnam.
"I am also happy to note that the museum contains artefacts
from Champa civilization, the result of an entirely peaceful
encounter between India and Vietnam," she said. Praising
the puppet artisans, she said that the water puppet show
provided a charming insight into the daily lives of the
people and must be reckoned as unique facet of Vietnamese
culture.
Later,
addressing a business luncheon meeeting hosted by the
Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Indutry, Patil said both
India and Vietnam are currently focusing on infrastructure
development, and added that both countries must continue
to take the initiative to promote and enhance bilateral
cooperation in this sector as well as in other. "India
has, in recent years, achieved commendable success in
this area. Some sectors such as the Highway Development
Programme has become a model for public-private partnership,
which can be usefully replicated in many other developing
countries, including Vietnam. We would be happy to share
our experiences. In many other areas, such as engineering,
transportation and power generation, Indian companies
can transfer their expertise to Vietnamese. Also, in higher
education, research and human resource development, India
can be a useful partner," she said. Praising Vietnam for
achieving commendable success, she said India could learn
from Vietnam. "Be it processing of marine products or
agricultural crops like cashew, pepper, coffee and rice,
Vietnam has become a major exporting nation in the world.
There are very many useful lessons in Vietnam's success
for Indian companies," she said. "In many regional and
multilateral fora, India and Vietnam closely consult and
coordinate with each other. India also has very close
ties with ASEAN, of which Vietnam is an important member.
In fact, India and ASEAN are soon going to sign Trade-in-Goods
Agreement. Conclusion of this Agreement will take India-Vietnam
economic ties to even greater strength. Our partnership
with Vietnam in Ganga-Mekong Cooperation, the East Asia
Summit and similar other regional fora will continue to
provide further strength to our ties," the Indian President
said. She said that she was looking forward to her discussions
with President Nguyen Minh Triet and other leaders in
Hanoi. "I intend to discuss with them ways and means to
further strengthen our economic partnership, which is
a pivotal part of our 'strategic partnership'. I am confident
that the discussions and deliberations at this business
meeting will contribute to ever strengthening ties between
India and Vietnam," she said.
-Nov 28, 2008
