(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-05-31 18:55

BEIJING - Under their new partnership, China and Vietnam will step up mutual political trust, work more closely on various fields and deepen friendship between their citizens, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Saturday.

"The biggest achievement out of your tour is the establishment of an all-round strategic cooperative partnership, which charts a new path for future China-Vietnam ties," Wen told Nong Duc Manh, general secretary of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) Central Committee, in Beijing on Saturday morning.

China and Vietnam elevated their ties to an all-round strategic cooperative partnership amid the Vietnam's Communist Party chief's visit to China.

The visit was Manh's fourth since he took the CPV helm in 2001.

Chinese President Hu Jintao and Manh agreed in their talks on Friday to upgrade bilateral ties from a good neighbor and all-round cooperative relation to a strategic partnership.

In his hour-long talk with Manh, Wen focused on outlining the economic and trade collaboration between the two countries.

"China and Vietnam should speed up mapping out and implementing a five-year economic and trade cooperation program," he said.

Wen called for both countries to quickly launch big projects in key fields of industry, infrastructure and energy, and encouraged Chinese businessmen to invest more in Vietnam.

Sharing Wen's view, Manh said bilateral trade hit the target of US$ 15 billionin 2007, three years earlier than scheduled.

"We are convinced that it will not be difficult for our trade to reach US$ 20 billion  per year in the near future," Manh said.

Noting this year marked the 30-year anniversary of China's reform and opening up, Manh said the Vietnamese side is happy to see the tremendous achievements China has made.

Wen appreciated Vietnam's generous support to China's post-quake relief efforts as Manh brought with him 15 tonnes of relief supplies for survivors of the Sichuan Province earthquake.

During Manh's four-day tour, he will also visit the eastern Jiangsu Province.