He made the statement at a concert held in the city on March 2 by the Embassy of Sweden in Vietnam on the occasion of the 50th founding anniversary of the two countries’ diplomatic relations.

The official said Vietnamese people always remember the material and spiritual assistance of Swedish people in the cause of national building and fighting for independence.

He highlighted the growing bilateral relations in various fields, especially economy, trade, investment, culture, tourism, education, and science.

The concert creates an opportunity for locals to understand better about Sweden’s land, people and culture, Hai said.

He suggested increasing political-diplomatic exchange activities, economic-trade-investment partnership, and culture-education cooperation to further deepen the bilateral friendly cooperative relations as well as mutual understanding.

Swedish Ambassador to Vietnam Pereric Hogberg recalled that 50 years ago, Sweden became the first western country to establish diplomatic relations with Vietnam, opening up a sound cooperative relation in numerous realms such as education, tourism, and development aid.

Nowadays, Sweden and Vietnam have seen progresses in cooperation in economy, trade, investment, culture, education and tourism, he said.

Sweden is running 30 investment projects worth 255 million USD in HCM City, ranking 15th among the 102 countries and territories investing in the southern hub.

Trade between Sweden and HCM City reached nearly 170 million USD in 2018.