Speaking at the ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh stressed that over the past 40 years, despite many ups and downs in each region and in the world, the friendship between the two peoples has continued to be cultivated and developed.
They are the visits of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia to Vietnam in 2006 and Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet to Spain in 2009. Among them, the most important milestone is that Spain has become the first member country of the European Union with which Vietnam has established a strategic partnership in all fields of political, national defence, economic, cultural and educational cooperation, with a long-term vision.
In the minds of the Vietnamese people, Spain is a beautiful country on the Mediterranean coast, the country of the colours of Goya, Picasso, Velazquez, vibrant Flamenco dance, famous Don Quixote character and football parties attracting millions of Vietnamese fans.
Not only that, Spain is also close to the daily life of the people of Vietnam through projects, programs on development support and poverty reduction, healthcare, safe water, responding to climate change, as well as Spain's famous consumer and pharmaceutical products.
Every Spanish person is probably familiar with the presence of many essential goods from Vietnam such as textiles, coffee, seafood and electronics. In ASEAN region, Vietnam has the largest trade exchange with Spain. Apart from that, Vietnam has and will continue to be a preferred destination of Spanish tourists, with over 58,000 visitors in 2016, up 29% over the previous year and nearly double that of 2010.
These encouraging figures show that Vietnam today is a peaceful, dynamic, friendly country and the leading destination in Asia-Pacific region for investment and tourism.
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh believed that with the "Vietnam Day in Spain" event, the country and people of Vietnam will come closer to Spanish friends through Vietnam’s cultural features, cooperation and exchange opportunities with a hospitable Vietnam, art performances, film screenings, and investment and trade promotion forums that the government of Vietnam prioritized to hold in Spain this year.
"Vietnam Day in Spain 2017" is the third important cultural and economic event held in Spain, contributing to promoting the image and potential of the country and people of Vietnam, and the strategic partnership towards the future between the two nations.
This is also an opportunity to approach and enhance investment attraction, technology transfer, economic relation development promotion, especially in fields Spain where has strength and Vietnam has demand, such as infrastructure (subways, airports, bridges and roads), high-tech agriculture (biotechnology), of state-owned enterprises equitization, wastewater/ waste treatment, tourism cooperation, energy (oil, gas and renewable energy).
Following are some photos at the event: