Burundi President and his wife will visit Vietnam

According to the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at the invitation of President Luong Cuong and his wife, Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye and his wife will pay an official visit to Vietnam from April 3-6.

Burundi is a landlocked country in Central Africa.

Vietnam and Burundi established diplomatic relations on April 16, 1975. Recently, the relationship between the two countries has developed more positively, especially after Viettel deployed the Lumitel telecommunications project in Burundi in 2014.

Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye admires Vietnam's history of fighting for national independence; highly appreciates Vietnam's important achievements in national construction and development, and considers Vietnam a model for developing countries to refer to.

During a meeting with Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the sidelines of the high-level general discussion of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York (September 2023), President Evariste Ndayishimiye agreed that the two countries need to promote cooperation in the coming time, focusing on trade and investment cooperation.

Trade turnover between the two countries is expected to reach more than 2 million USD in 2024. Vietnam mainly exports machinery, equipment, spare parts, computers, and component products (about 1 million USD); while importing ore, some minerals, and animal feed (about 1 million USD).

Viettel has been investing in Burundi since 2013 in the form of a joint venture. In June 2015, Viettel Burundi Joint Venture officially launched a mobile network across Burundi under the brand name Lumitel.

After 11 years of operation, Lumitel has developed a nationwide network with a total of 592 BTS stations (2G, 3G, 4G), 1.5 times more than the second network operator, covering 95% of the population, with the goal of expanding 4G coverage to over 50% of the population by 2025. Lumitel is ensuring jobs and stable income for more than 60,000 employees; 100,000 indirect jobs of distribution channels, stores, agents...

The two countries regularly coordinate and support each other at the United Nations forum and international organizations. Recently, Burundi supported Vietnam to become a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term and the World Heritage Committee (WHC) for the 2023-2027 term.

The two countries signed an agreement on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders (June 2022); a Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation in the field of information and communications (December 2024).

Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/tong-thong-burundi-va-phu-nhan-se-tham-chinh-thuc-viet-nam-2386364.html