At the invitation of Swedish Parliament Speaker Urban Ahlin, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and the Vietnamese National Assembly delegation arrived in Stockholm, beginning the official visit to the Kingdom of Sweden from April 6 to 8, 2007.

At the talks with Swedish counterpart Urban Ahlin, the two sides appreciated the traditional long-term cooperation between the two countries. In the time to come, the two sides should continue to promote trade and investment relation to match respective strengths. Both sides wished to promote the development of parliamentary relations to new heights by strengthening the coordination of oversight and speeding up the implementation of cooperation agreements signed between the two governments and strategic cooperative projects, support the Governments, localities, businesses and people of the two countries to enhance exchanges and relations in order to promote mutual understanding and cooperation for mutual benefit, development cooperation and environmental protection.

The two sides maintained that the early signing and ratification of the Vietnam-EU Free Trade Agreement would bring about common interests for all parties, contributing to the increase of bilateral trade turnover, including of Vietnam and Sweden. For his part, the Speaker of the Swedish Parliament affirmed his support for the early signing and ratification of the Agreement by the European Union (EU).

The two sides also compared note on gender equality, the role of women in society and experience in corruption prevention. Swedish Parliament Speaker Urban Ahlin said that Sweden has experience in the legislative field and is willing to share with Vietnam in overseeing state agency activities, building of smart city, environmental protection, and gas emission reduction, bilateral cooperation in the field of research, education and training.

On this occasion, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan suggested Sweden to support Vietnam's candidature for the United Nations Security Council for the 2020-2021 term, urgethe European Union (EU) for early signing and ratification of the Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the EU (EVFTA), early recognition of market economy status of Vietnam, and create new opportunities for businesses of the two countries to cooperate and expand investment and business.

Recognizing that Sweden has strength in the field of justice and law, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan proposed the Swedish Parliament to continue supporting and sharing experiences with the National Assembly of Vietnam in legislation development, and oversight of the state apparatus’s operation.

National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan stressed that the Vietnamese National Assembly highly valued Mr. Urban Ahlin and the Swedish Parliament delegation’s participation in the 132nd General Assembly of the World Parliament Assembly (IPU-132) in Hanoi, which contributed to the success of the General Assembly.

Swedish Parliament Speaker Urban Ahlin expressed his pleasure to welcome National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan and the Vietnamese delegation and expressed hope that the visit would promote and deepen the relations and the traditional friendship and cooperation with Sweden in general and with the Swedish Parliament in particular, openingup new prospects for cooperation in bilateral relations as well as interregional and international cooperation.

Mr. Urban Ahlin expressed his satisfaction that the traditional friendship and cooperation between the two countries has positively developed in various fields, particularly economy, trade, investment, transport and healthcare, and the relations between the two assemblies has been strengthened and developed.

Within the framework of the visit, National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan paid a courtesy visit to Princess Victoria Alice Désirée, visited the Swedish Parliament House, visited and worked with leaders of Ericson Group, visited the smart city of Hammarby Sjostad and Sweco Corporation.