Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party Central Committee, visited southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and concluded a five-day official goodwill visit to China on Saturday.

Manh, who started the visit on Tuesday as guest of Chinese President Hu Jintao, met Liu Qibao, secretary of regional CPC committee of Guangxi before departing from Nanning, capital of Guangxi, which borders Vietnam.

Liu told Manh that Guangxi and Vietnam share special ties and traditional friendship. The two sides have accelerated cooperation in various sectors such as trade, economy and tourism in recent years.

He appealed to the two sides to further cooperate in infrastructure sectors such as railway and road building and promote regional economic cooperation.

Manh spoke highly of Guangxi's social and economic achievements, saying the current successful cooperation provided a sound basis for further cooperation.

He asked the two sides to strengthen trade and economic cooperation and contribute to regional development by actively participating in the ASEAN-China framework.

On Friday, Manh arrived in Guilin, a scenic spot in Guangxi and toured the famous Lijiang River.

The Vietnamese delegation arrived in Nanning Saturday morning. The delegation visited the China Southern Power Grid Guangxi branch and a modern agriculture center.

Trade and economic cooperation is the focus of Manh's visit. He visited Lenovo's headquarters in Beijing, Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co., Ltd. and Dalian Machine Tool Group in Liaoning Province.

During meetings with officials and business people, Manh invited strong Chinese companies to invest in Vietnam, especially on large key projects.

China-Vietnam trade hit 8.2 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 and may hit 10 billion U.S. this year.

According to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, 37 Chinese companies were set up in Vietnam last year, with investment of 55 million U.S. dollars.

A total of 146 Chinese companies had invested in Vietnam by the end of 2005, with a total contractual investment of 170 million U.S. dollars.

Source: Xinhua