Sri Lanka and Vietnam have expanded a number of new areas of cooperation including Agriculture, Fisheries and Security Cooperation, while moving towards a closer economic partnership between the two countries at the Second Meeting of the Joint Commission for Economic, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between Sri Lanka and Viet Nam held in Colombo yesterday.

'Bilateral trade between the two countries have seen a significant growth during the recent years which had reached US $ 60.9 million by the end of 2008 from US$ 16.5 million in 2003.

Both sides agreed that the current state of trade is far below the potential and agreed to work together to reach a target of US$ 100 million by 2012, the ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The two sides reaffirmed their policy of not allowing any group or individual to use each others territory for hostile acts against any other country.

'Sri Lanka with the recent defeat of terrorism would be an attractive destination for increasing the number of Vietnamese travelling abroad. Due to the shared religious and cultural heritage of the two countries, there remains an enormous potential to develop “pilgrim tourism”, said Foreign Minister Bogollagama.

The two sides agreed to assist travel agents of the respective countries to enhance their business links and also to explore the possibilities of projecting the images of the two countries in a favourable manner to the public through mass media.

The Government invited Vietnam investors to exploit the attractive investment opportunities available in Sri Lanka.

It was further agreed to fully harness the benefits of the Memorandum of Understanding on Agriculture Development Co-operation that was signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Agricultural Development on behalf of the Government of Viet Nam in November 2006 and the Memorandum of Understanding on Bilateral Cooperation in the fields of Fisheries and Aquaculture between the Ministry of Fisheries of Viet Nam and the Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources of the Sri Lanka that was signed in March 2005.

It was also agreed to consider the possibility of the signing of Agreements Sea Transportation and Education Cooperation between the Vietnamese and Sri Lanka.

Foreign Minister, Rohitha Bogollagama led the Sri Lanka delegation and the Viet Nam delegation was led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Viet Nam, Dao Viet Trung.