The governor of the US State of Virginia expressed his wish at a reception for Vietnamese ambassador Nguyen Quoc Cuong, who visited the State recently.

To meet the goal, McAuliffe said both sides need to increase visit exchanges and bring into full play the role of the Vietnamese community in Virginia.

For his part, Cuong welcomed the governor’s proposal and vowed to cooperate closely with Virginia to strengthen economic and trade ties between the two sides.

Both host and guest noted with satisfaction the impressive growth in bilateral trade, reaching nearly US$30 billion in 2013, of which agricultural trade rose more than 60% over the last two years.

Cuong invited McAuliffe and business people of Virginia to visit Vietnam to explore investment opportunities there. His invitation was accepted by the governor with pleasure.

The same day, ambassador Cuong attended and delivered a speech at a Virginia seminar on agricultural trade.

He spoke of the growing process of trade liberalisation in the Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian regions, and proposed Virginia’s business people support trade liberalisation efforts, especially the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to make use of new opportunities in bilateral trade ties.

With a population of more than 8 million, Virginia gains annual GDP revenue of US$423 billion, ranking ninth among 50 states in the US.