The signing was made within the framework of the ongoing visit to Saudi Arabia of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh.

The programme, a joint initiative reached by Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung and Minister of Tourism Ahmed A. Al-Khateeb at their meeting in Hanoi last August, covers measures to increase the exchange and sharing of information, experience, statistics on the Halal market, tourist demand, tourism human resources development and training, tourism promotion events, and tourism investment opportunities in the two countries.

At the meeting with Deputy Minister of Tourism Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud, Minister Hung said that the Vietnamese Prime Minister last February approved a project on strengthening international cooperation to build and develop Vietnam's Halal industry until 2030. The project set out major national orientations to open up the potential Halal market, in which tourism is considered one of the priority areas, and Saudi Arabia one of the key partners and markets.

Vietnam always wishes to boost international cooperation to build and develop the Halal tourism value chain to meet the taste of tourists from the Muslim community. Vietnam also wants to promote its tourism in Halal markets like Saudi Arabia, he said.

He proposed Saudi Arabia help Vietnam in learning about tourists’ demand and the Halal market, building standards and regulations on Halal tourism through transferring technology and introducing businesses of Saudi Arabia to invest and operate in Vietnam.

For her part, Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al-Saud highly valued Minister Hung's proposals, while affirming that the two countries are determined to promote tourism cooperation.

She said Saudi Arabia is considering the issue of e-visas to tourists from Vietnam, and the Ministry of Tourism will soon work with domestic travel and tourism companies to study and develop product packages that are suitable to the taste of Vietnamese tourists.

She added that with the desire to promote tourism exchange with Vietnam by air in the near future, Saudi Arabia expects to have direct flights between the two countries.

Vietnam and Saudi Arabia signed an Air Transport Agreement in 2019 to pave the way for the establishment of flight routes between the two countries.

According to Dang Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Vietnam Airlines Corporation, Vietnam Airlines and Saudi Airlines will conduct codeshare flights, thereby moving towards opening direct flights between the two countries.

Nguyen Thanh Hung, Vice Chairman of Vietjet, said that with a market of more than 34 million people of Saudi Arabia and 100 million population of Vietnam, the two countries boast great potential for tourism and air transport cooperation./. VNA