By M.B. Jalloh, Press Attaché, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States
The Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to the State of Kuwait on Tuesday, 19th July, 2016 paid a courtesy call on his Sierra Leonean colleague in Kuwait.
Present at the meeting were the Minister Counsellor and Head of Chancery of the Sierra Leone Embassy, Mr. Duwai S. Lungay and the Secretary to the Vietnamese Ambassador, Mr. Truong Phu Phong.
In welcoming His Excellency Professor Nguyen Hong Thao of Vietnam, His Excellency Ambassador Ibrahim Bakarr Kamara expressed Sierra Leone’s desire to establish stronger bilateral relations with the Vietnamese government.
The Sierra Leone Envoy intimated that it was necessary for the two sides to start embarking on cultural exchanges as well as economic and educational programmes that would be beneficial to the Government and peoples of the two countries.
Ambassador Kamara reminded his colleague of a discussion he had had with his predecessor on how best both countries can collaborate in the Agricultural Sector.
He explained that Sierra Leone and Vietnam have the same consumption pattern with rice as their staple food. Sierra Leone he further maintained, have vast amounts of arable land which can be economically utilized for the mutual benefit of both countries.
“The need for technical support to build the human resource capacity of Sierra Leone to enhance the country’s agricultural production was therefore a necessity,” Ambassador Kamara reiterated.
He implored his colleague to encourage Vietnamese business entities to start coming into Sierra Leone to invest and do business in various sectors of the economy of Sierra Leone, now that there is enough space with minimal start-up costs for investments in the country.
The Envoy explained his Government’s avowed determination to expand its economic and diplomatic outreach in more Asian countries. By so doing, he furthered, stronger bilateral relations can be established between the two countries that would ultimately lead to the opening of embassies in both capitals.
Ambassador Kamara on a final note assured his colleague that Sierra Leone is a country with a business friendly environment where one can start doing business in just a few days with no bottlenecks and profits could easily be transferred by the investor back to his home country.
In the same vein, the Vietnamese Ambassador assured Ambassador Ibrahim Bakarr Kamara that he would pass on the message to his government for serious consideration to be given towards the idea of establishing a stronger bilateral relation, more so on the economic front, as that is the new vogue today in international relations at both the bilateral and multilateral levels.
The Minister Counsellor and Head of Chancery, Mr. Duwai S. Lungay, in his remarks, also implored the Vietnamese Ambassador to encourage his government to initiate action by making a declaration of intent for diplomatic Missions to be established in the capitals of the two countries by which means, the cordial and friendly relations existing between the two embassies in the state of Kuwait can be taken further to another level for the impact to be felt on the economies of the two countries.
