President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir today called on Vietnam to further ease its visa process for Bangladeshi businesspeople, workers, students and tourists to boost people-to-people contact and expand bilateral cooperation.

"Bangladesh and Vietnam have maintained friendly relations for more than five decades. To further strengthen the relations between the two countries and harness mutual development potential, it is important to ease the visa process to increase contacts and expand areas of partnership among businesspeople, investors and peoples of the two countries," he said.

The President made the remarks as Vietnamese Ambassador to Bangladesh Nguyen Manh Cuong paid a farewell call on him at Bangabhaban this morning, President's Press Secretary Md Sarwar Alam told BSS.

During the meeting, the Vietnamese ambassador congratulated President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on assuming office and conveyed an invitation from the President of Vietnam to visit the country.

The President thanked the Vietnamese President for the invitation.

The ambassador called for establishing direct air connectivity between Bangladesh and Vietnam, implementing a preferential trade agreement and increasing exchanges of high-level visits.

Recalling his visit to Vietnam in 2003 as a member of the entourage of then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, President Mirza Fakhrul expressed hope that the historic friendship between the peoples of the two countries and bilateral relations would be further strengthened.

"Opportunities should be created to increase Bangladesh's exports to make trade between the two countries more balanced and mutually beneficial," he said.

He urged Vietnam to increase imports of Bangladeshi export products, including medicines, leather and leather goods, ceramics, bicycles, jute and jute products.

The President thanked the outgoing ambassador for his successful tenure and contributions to the development of Bangladesh-Vietnam relations.

He wished the Vietnamese ambassador good health and well-being and peace, progress and prosperity for the people of Vietnam.

Secretaries to the President, senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and officials of the Vietnam Embassy were present at the meeting.