Mr Nguyen Phu Trong President of the National Assembly of Socialist Republic of Vietnam called for deepening and strengthening of economic and trade relations between India and Vietnam while addressing the "Vietnam-India Business Forum: Towards a Strategic Partnership" jointly organised by Confederation of Indian Industry and Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry in New Delhi on 25 February. He called upon the two countries to increase the volume of the bilateral trade to US $10 billion by 2010.

He asked Indian businessmen to avail the advantage of young Vietnamese labour force, huge market and a gateway to the larger ASEAN market and invest in Vietnam in sectors like IT, human resources development, management, education, science and technology, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, ICT, energy, biotechnology, nanotechnology, etc.

India and Vietnam have developed friendly and cooperative relationship based on centuries old historical, cultural and religious links and the foundation laid by the first Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru and Vietnamese leader, Ho Chi Minh, said Mr Nguyen. India has recently granted 'market economy status' to Vietnam.

Speaking to a packed house, Mr Nguyen appreciated India's "Look East" policy and said that Vietnam would extend all support and assistance to India in its pursuit of strengthening and developing strong relations with ASEAN countries. He said that 'fundamentals' of Vietnamese economy were very strong and it has been developing at a fairly reasonable rate in recent years and like India, it was able to withstand the present global economic crisis.

Ms Preneet Kaur, Minister of State for External Affairs of India in her keynote address asked for strengthening bilateral relations by forging strong economic and trade relations. She hoped that with the implementation of the ASEAN India FTA in trade, would also immensely help the growth of economic relations between the two countries