Vietnamese party leader leaves for visit to China

General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Central Committee (CPVCC), Nong Duc Manh, left HanoiTuesday morning for his five-day official goodwill visit to China.

This is the first trip to the neighbor country by Manh since he was reelected as the general secretary in April. During the visit, at the invitation of Hu Jintao, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and Chinese President, Manh is scheduled to hold talks with Hu and meet with some other state leaders of China.

The two sides are expected to discuss issues of common concern, especially those on promoting their friendly ties and all-round cooperation.

Before leaving, Manh said the visit will finely succeed, promoting the Vietnam-China relations to a new height.

Manh is accompanied by Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Gia Khiem, head of the CPVCC's Commission for Ideology and Culture To Huy Rua, head of the CPVCC's External Affairs Commission Nguyen Van Son, and some other senior officials.

In recent years, the two countries have frequently exchanged high-level delegations to beef up the bilateral ties, Chinese ambassador to Vietnam Hu Qianwen told Xinhua on Monday.

Through visits of the two countries' leaders, the bilateral relations have smoothly developed. China has become Vietnam's biggest trade partner since 2004. Their trade reached over 8 billion U.S. dollars last year. The two sides hope, by the end of this year, to fulfill the two-way trade target of 10 billion dollars ahead the schedule of 2010 set by prime ministers of the two countries, the ambassador said.

Source: Xinhua