Vietnam and South Africa strengthen cooperation in oil and gas and aviation

On the morning of November 21 (local time), during his participation in the G20 Summit and bilateral activities in South Africa, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Ms. Brenda Moagi, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, and Ms. Sesakho Magadla, CEO of the South African National Petroleum Company.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Ms. Brenda Moagi, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the South African National Petroleum Corporation. (Photo: THANH GIANG)

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that during his visit to South Africa, the two countries are expected to upgrade their relationship to a new level and the good political relationship between the two countries is the foundation for promoting economic cooperation, in which oil and gas and energy cooperation plays an important role in the rapid and sustainable development of each country.

Appreciating South Africa's establishment of the National Oil and Gas Company last May - marking a new development step in South Africa's energy industry, the Prime Minister said the National Industry-Energy Group ( Petrovietnam ) is the key unit in the fields of industry, energy and oil and gas services of Vietnam.

Petrovietnam has extensive experience and is implementing the entire oil and gas value chain, including exploration, exploitation, processing, transportation, storage, distribution and provision of oil and gas technical services; at the same time, it is actively promoting energy transition, focusing on developing new energy sources such as green hydrogen, offshore wind power and LNG...

The Prime Minister proposed that the South African National Oil and Gas Company cooperate with Petrovietnam in potential fields, especially offshore oil and gas exploration and exploitation, petrochemical refining, oil and gas services, energy industry development, wind and solar power, investment cooperation in potential areas, and human resource training. The Prime Minister invited the Company's leaders to visit Vietnam, work specifically with partners and reach agreements to implement cooperation.

For his part, the leader of the South African National Oil and Gas Company said he was very interested and ready to cooperate with Vietnam, welcomed the Prime Minister's proposals and would discuss specifically with Petrovietnam, moving towards signing a memorandum of understanding for quick, sustainable, and mutually beneficial cooperation.

Noting that South Africa has a power grid connected to the region, Ms. Brenda Moagi shared that the two sides have a lot of potential for cooperation, in which offshore wind power and oil and gas exploitation are areas that can cooperate immediately; and Petrovietnam's support is very necessary for the South African National Petroleum Company.

* On the same day, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Mr. De Villiers Engelbrecht - CEO of Airlink airline.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received Mr. De Villiers Engelbrecht - CEO of Airlink airline. (Photo: Thanh Giang)

At the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh assessed that the cooperation between Vietnam and South Africa is currently developing strongly in the fields of politics, economics, trade and tourism, but the two countries still lack direct flights. Cooperation in expanding flight routes and aviation markets is of great significance to promoting trade, investment, people-to-people exchange, tourism, freight transport, e-commerce, etc. between the two countries.

The Prime Minister said that Vietnam's aviation market is growing rapidly, with the total Vietnamese aviation transport market expected to reach about 85 million passengers by 2025, an increase of about 11% compared to 2024. The market currently has 6 Vietnamese airlines (Vietnam Airlines, Pacific Airlines, VietJet Air, Bamboo Airways, Vietravel Airlines, Sun Phu Quoc Airways).

Vietnam is also focusing on developing the airport/port infrastructure system to meet the market development, especially Long Thanh airport, which is expected to complete phase 1 by the end of 2025, and Gia Binh airport, which will be completed in the coming years, both of which are large-scale, aiming to turn Vietnam into a regional aviation gateway with a scale of up to 100 million passengers/year and millions of tons of cargo/year.

According to the Prime Minister, South Africa is the gateway to Africa; while Vietnam is the gateway to Asia, Southeast Asia, within a radius of about 5-6 hours of flight is the region accounting for about 50% of the world's population and 60% of global GDP. Appreciating the activities of Airlink - one of the major airlines of South Africa in particular and the African region in general, the Prime Minister suggested that, based on experience in exploiting the flight network, Airlink promote cooperation with Vietnamese airlines to further strengthen aviation connectivity between the two countries with the goal of Airlink being the gateway to Africa for Vietnamese airlines and Vietnamese airlines being the gateway to Asia for Airlink in particular and South African airlines in general.

Mr. De Villiers Engelbrecht - CEO of Airlink Airlines expressed his good feelings towards Vietnam, agreeing with the Prime Minister on the importance of strengthening aviation cooperation for the relationship between the two countries. He said that he is having discussions with Vietnamese airlines to implement cooperation activities according to the contents that Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh had commented on, thereby contributing to establishing a cooperation corridor on tourism and people-to-people exchange between the two countries.

Ha Thanh Giang

Source: https://nhandan.vn/viet-nam-va-nam-phi-tang-cuong-hop-tac-ve-dau-khi-hang-khong-post924923.html