(VOV) - Prime Minster Nguyen Tan Dung and President of the Cuban Council of State Raul Castro Ruz pledged to consolidate and deepen the ties of traditional friendship and comprehensive cooperation between Vietnam and Cuba. On Thursday, the two leaders discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation across a variety of fields--trade, agriculture, electronics, telecommunication, energy, health care, bio-technology, construction, tourism and education. They spoke highly of the two nations’ close coordination and mutual support within international organizations and at multilateral forums to protect their legitimate interests and elevate their prestige in the international arena, thus contributing to the building of a better and more equal world.

The Cuban leader praised Vietnam’s significant achievements in its renewal process, saying that Cuba wants to learn from Vietnam’s experience to update its own economic development model. Ruz called Dung’s visit a good opportunity to strengthen the traditional friendship. After the talks, President Ruz bestowed the Order of Jose Marti on PM Dung.

Dung announced a Vietnamese grant of five million tons of rice and 100 computer systems to Cuban people. The two leaders also witnessed the signing of a medium-term economic agenda between the two governments and a Memorandum of Understanding on healthcare and agricultural cooperation.

Earlier, Dung made a fact-finding tour of a joint Vietnam-Cuba production model at Cubancan farm in the western province of Pinar del Rio. The project covers an area of nearly 28,000 hectares with an output of 4.58 tons per hectare, 1.2 times higher than the average productivity of Cuban farms. This model has been expanded to 12 provinces across Cuba. Dung said Vietnam will continue to help Cuba develop agricultural projects in other industrial crops like maize, soybean, coffee and aquaculture.