ice President, Yemi Osinbajo, says Nigeria and Vietnam will benefit from the opportunities existing in agriculture and technology with effective collaboration in these sectors.

Osinbajo’s spokesman, Laolu Akande, in a statement on Tuesday in Abuja, said the Vice President received on a courtesy visit at the Presidential Villa, the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to Nigeria, Luong Quoe.

According to Osinbajo, there are specific areas that have been discussed in the past including agriculture.

The Vice President said that other areas of collaboration between Nigeria and Vietnam would be in the interaction of young people actively engaged within the technology space in both countries.

“There was also talk about cashew processing and 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.

“I know that Vietnam is doing interesting things in 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 their different attainments.

“ I certainly would like us to explore that possibility, especially in the area of technology with our young people.

“There was plenty room for cooperation and one of such ways is being effective in establishing relations and ensuring the relationship endure if both countries are able to structure the bi-national commission and then also some of the economic collaboration through agriculture and technology.”

The Vice President thanked the Vietnamese Government for the kind donation of medical supplies to Nigeria to the Nigerian Mission in Hanoi.

He listed the items donated as Droplet Resistant and Antibacterial Fabric Masks, Medical Face Masks and Real–Time Reverse Transcriptase (RT-PCR) Diagnostic Panel for SARS-COV 2.

Osinbajo said there was an additional donation of 100,000 high-quality 4-Ply Anti- Bacterial Medical face masks by a Vietnamese Pharmaceutical Company known as ANH THU Pharmaceutical and Medical Equipment Investment Joint Stock Company–PSD Group.

In his remarks, Quoe described Nigeria’s role in Africa as enormous. He said that Vietnam would always wish to have Nigeria’s support in multilateral forums, most importantly, the United Nations.

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The Ambassador said that the economic potential between both countries was huge.

“I hope Nigeria will soon recognise Vietnam as a country of full market economy and Nigeria and Vietnam would sign an agreement on investment, promotion, and protection.

“There are five to seven thousand Nigerians studying and helping in the development of the economy of Vietnam,” he said.

Quoe also requested the consideration of direct flights between Nigeria and Vietnam.

Also present at the meeting was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama and other top government officials.