In the exchange meeting, Minister of Transport Nguyen Van Thang highly appreciated this visit and working session of Minister Andreas Carlson on this year’s occasion of the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Sweden was the first Western country to establish diplomatic relations with Viet Nam in 1969. Bilateral relations between the two countries over the past 55 years have been expanded in all areas from politics - diplomacy, trade - investment to culture - education. In 2023, the total bilateral trade turnover between Viet Nam and Sweden reached 1.2 billion USD. Viet Nam is currently the second country in Asia in terms of exports to Sweden.
The Minister assessed that there are still a lot of potentials in the field of transport between the two sides to promote cooperation, which can be realized through specific cooperation. Serving as a legal foundation in air connectivity, the Air Transport Agreement between Viet Nam and the Scandinavian countries (including Denmark, Finland, Sweden) was officially signed on September 25, 1997. However, none of the airlines from both sides have established a direct route. In a side effort, Viet Nam is taking steps to approve the ASEAN-EU Comprehensive Air Transport Agreement (AE-CATA).
The signing of the AE-CATA Agreement provides a legal basis for Viet Nam (an ASEAN member) and Sweden (an EU member) to expand the air transport market, facilitating the promotion of economic growth, trade and tourism between the two countries. This also ensures the highest standards of safety, security, flight operation management, environment, and social issues in international air transport.
The Minister suggested that the two sides continue to promote the airlines of the two countries, studying the potential of a direct flight route between Viet Nam and Sweden, making Viet Nam become a gateway of Sweden to Southeast Asian countries, and at the same time, Sweden will be a bridge for Vietnamese people and stakeholders to Northern European countries.
In terms of air traffic management, Minister Nguyen Van Thang highly appreciated the cooperation between the Viet Nam Air Traffic Management Corporation (VATM) and Swedish companies, in which VATM is exploiting some systems of equipment provided by Swedish enterprises such as surveillance camera systems, Advanced-Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems (A-SMGCS); cooperating with the Swedish Development Finance Agency (SWEDFUND) to negotiate and sign a financing agreement for the Feasibility Study Project on System-Wide Information Management (SWIM) and digitization of air traffic management (ATM).
At the meeting, Minister Nguyen Van Thang also expressed his hope that VATM and Swedish partners will continue to have substantive cooperation in the future, and introduced to the delegation about the projects, development plans for airports, Vietnamese airports, including Long Thanh International Airport, which is under construction, with a total capacity of up to 100 million passengers/year after completion.
Thanking Minister Nguyen Van Thang for sharing about potentials, cooperation opportunities, Minister Andreas Carlson expressed that Sweden always highly appreciates the partnership, cooperation between the two sides, bringing benefits to both countries, businesses of the two countries, and also contributing to global sustainable development. Sweden is always ready to share knowledge, experience about innovative solutions in projects, fields of transport about smart infrastructure, intelligent transportation, green transition...
Minister Andreas Carlson also believes that the establishment of a direct flight route not only contributes to promoting trade between the two countries, but also exploits the increasing tourism market. In addition, the two sides can cooperate in the field of digitization of air traffic management. Sweden currently has a remote air traffic management system, with "virtual" non-tower to operate safe and efficient air traffic management etc./.
(Trans. by Legal and International Cooperation Department)
On the morning of October 24, 2024, Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) Dinh Viet Thang hosted a working meeting with the Swedish Embassy in Hanoi.
On the afternoon of October 23, 2024, Deputy Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) Do Hong Cam chaired a working meeting with the Mongolian Ambassador in Hanoi.
The first flights using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) have been successfully refueled in Vietnam today (October 17, 2024) and departed from Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.
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On the afternoon of September 18, 2024, Director General Đinh Việt Thắng welcomed His Excellency Kinzang Dorji, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Bhutan to Thailand, concurrently accredited to Vietnam, during his visit and work session at the office of the Civil Aviation Authority of Viet Nam.
