Last updated: 19:26 - November 13, 2006
Vietnam can be important partner: US State Secretary http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/news/131106/domestic_vnca.htm
Vietnam can be a very important partner for the United States, said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her recent interview to a residential correspondent of the Vietnam News Agency in Washington D.C.
Speaking of the importance of the upcoming Vietnam visit of US President George W. Bush to bilateral relations in particular and Asia-Pacific region in general, Rice said, "the President is very much looking forward to his visit to Vietnam, as am I, because Vietnam is a country that's going through tremendous change. Our economic relationship is moving forward. We continue our dialogue about the process of democratisation and human rights. It's becoming a very broad relationship."
"And so I assess the President's visit there as an extremely important one for us that demonstrates that Vietnam can be a very important partner for the US and a very important partner in Asia for the US."
The US Secretary of State assessed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is really one of the most important tools giving countries the ability to make their products available, to create jobs, and out of creating jobs to create prosperity.
"So I hope that the message that will come out of APEC is the importance of free trade, the importance of living up to the rules of the free trading system, like intellectual property rights protection, and APEC has tended to have very good messages in that regard, and given the troubles for the Doha round it's a good time for APEC to speak with one voice about the importance of trade."
Regarding Vietnam's accession to WTO, she said "it shows how far Vietnam has come in really a very short period of time that we're talking about Vietnam within the WTO, we're talking about increased trade with the US, we're talking about normal trade relations between Vietnam and the US." She assessed it will be a tremendous benefit to both Vietnam and the US in terms of job growth and opening up the markets for more products, adding that Vietnam should be very proud of its accession to the WTO because it has been through a great deal.
The US Secretary of State, who is one of the most successful women in the US and well known in Vietnam, also said she looked forward to meeting Vietnamese women during her coming visit to the country.
She said, "I would like to say to women in Vietnam that I hope they are taking their rightful place in the political system. Very often women are well represented in business or in education, but not so well represented in the political system. And I expect that in a country like Vietnam that is opening up, where business is growing, where contacts with the outside world are growing, that you're going to see many, many more women involved in politics.
"We've learned something very important. When women are involved in economies, children are better educated, the country grows better, particularly when you talk about rural areas where in villages that have been poor very often women-owned businesses are the way that a village will begin to gain prosperity. And I'm sure I'm going to find many examples of that in Vietnam." (VNA)
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