(VNF) – Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Toursim Le Khanh Hai had a working session with the Vice Minister of the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism of Japan Takao Makino on December 13.

Vice Minister Le Khanh Hai (R) talks to his Japanese counterpart Takao Makino (source: Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism)

At the meeting, Vice Minister Hai talked to his Japanese counterpart on bilateral cooperation roadmap in tourism, in which the two sides will collaborate to increase the number of Japanese tourist arrival to Vietnam to 1 million, and the number of Vietnamese tourists to Japan to 500,000 by 2020.

The Vice Minister also took the occasion to seek Japan’s assistance for Vietnam in infrastructures development and tourism management, with a view to meeting with Japanese tourists' demands.

Vietnam and Japan have been enhancing partnerships in various fields, including tourism.

Earlier, in October, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) launched a program to connect Vietnamese and Japanese businesses and announced the first Japan Tourism Festival 2017, which will attract the participation of seven Vietnamese top tourism businesses and airlines and five businesses from Japan.

In the first nine months of this year, the number of Japanese tourists to Vietnam is up by 11% in comparison with the previous year and the number of Vietnamese visitors to Japan reached the highest level ever./.

( Phi Yen )