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Ho Chi Minh City, Nov.25 (ANI): Fascinated by Vietnam’’s puppet artisans and impressed with the preservation of historical art efacts in the Museum of Natural History in Ho Chi Minh City, visiting Indian President Pratibha Devi Singh Patil on Tuesday said that her 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, while 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. (ANI)