Vietnamese President, Gunma Governor Agree to Enhance Ties

May 30, 2018

Maebashi, Gunma Pref.- Visiting Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang and Masaaki Osawa, governor of Gunma Prefecture, have confirmed their intentions to work together to enhance ties between the Southeast Asian nation and the eastern Japan prefecture.

Meeting at the Gunma government office in Maebashi, the capital of the prefecture, on Tuesday, Osawa told Quang he hopes that the Vietnamese leader's visit will help further deepen the Gunma-Vietnam friendship.

In response, Quang, who is visiting Japan as a state guest, said he believes that personnel exchanges between Vietnam and Gunma will substantially contribute to the development of the two countries' relationship.

Gunma and Vietnam have strong economic relations. While some 40 companies from Gunma are operating in Vietnam, about 7,000 Vietnamese live in the prefecture. Osawa, who is in his third term as Gunma governor, has visited Vietnam twice, in February 2016 and February 2017. The prefecture and the Vietnamese government have signed a memorandum on economic exchanges and cooperation in human resources development.

Quang told Osawa that his country hopes to work more closely with Gunma in fields, including manufacturing, infrastructure development, high technology and agriculture, where the prefecture has strength, for the further development of Vietnam.

Quang asked the prefecture to increase the number of technical trainees it accepts from Vietnam. Osawa called for Vietnam's cooperation to help more Vietnamese university students get jobs at companies from Gunma. Jiji Press