Peruvian President hails bilateral relations with Vietnam

Boluarte praised the efforts and achievements made by Bitel telecommunication service provider, the Peru branch of Vietnam's military-run telecom group Viettel, in providing telecommunication services in rural and border areas of the South American nation.

She expressed her hope that the two countries will consider a cooperation agreement in the field of telecommunications to support remote areas of Peru, especially poor children with difficult learning conditions.

The host took the occasion to thank Vietnam for its vote for Peru to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in 2024.

Outgoing Vietnamese Ambassador to Brazil and Peru Pham Thi Kim Hoa (L) and President of Peru Dina Boluarte (Photo: VNA)

Ambassador Hoa stressed that Vietnam and Peru have witnessed strong developments in economic, trade and investment cooperation, noting that there remains great potential for the two sides to expand bonds.

She expressed the wish to further deepen the Vietnam – Peru friendship and cooperation on the basis that both nations are joining international cooperation mechanisms and institutions such as APEC and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP).

The diplomat called on the Peruvian government to continue creating favourable conditions for and supporting Viettel and the Oil and Gas Group (Petrovietnam) to effectively implement telecommunications, and oil and gas projects in the country.

During her working visit to Peru from April 17 – 21, Hoa also had meetings with representatives of the Peruvian Ministries of Foreign Affairs; Foreign Trade and Tourism; Education; and Transport and Communications.

The two sides discussed solutions to strengthen cooperation in new fields such as tourism, education, and technology in the coming time, including exchanging high-level delegations, maintaining bilateral cooperation mechanisms, promoting trade links, and maintaining close coordination at multilateral forums such as APEC and the CPTPP.

The Peruvian side showed their desire to expand relations with Vietnam, saying that Vietnam is an important partner of the South American nation in Southeast Asia, especially in trade and investment.

Currently, two large Vietnamese firms – Petrovietnam and Viettel – are operating in Peru in the fields of energy and telecommunication services respectively. Viettel officially started to provide its services in Peru in 2014 under the name of Bitel, and it is the network operator with the largest fiber optic infrastructure in Peru at 30,000km in length.

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Peru hit 600 million USD last year, and 146.8 million USD in the first quarter of this year alone, representing a year-on-year rise of 2.5%.