Vietnamese airlines yesterday bought 40 airplanes worth US$6.5 billion from Airbus SAS, as French President Francois Hollande visited the nation to drum up business ties with one of Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies.
Hollande, the third French president to visit Vietnam since its independence, said the “very important deals” deepened ties with its former colony where France’s legacy is ubiquitous, from the country’s colonial-era buildings to French-influenced cuisine.
Low-cost private airline VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co, known for its bikini-clad flight attendants, bought 20 airplanes, while national carrier Vietnam Airlines Co Ltd and budget airline Jetstar Pacific Airlines Joint Stock Aviation Co bought 10 each in “deals worth US$6.5 billion,” Airbus Asia spokesman Sean Lee told reporters.
He did not provide a breakdown of each deal’s value, but VietJet said in a statement that it was spending US$2.39 billion on its new airplanes.
The VietJet purchase comes after it bought 100 passenger jets from US aircraft maker Boeing Co for US$11.3 billion in May, during a visit by US President Barack Obama.
It called the deal the largest single commercial airplane purchase in Vietnamese aviation history.
Hollande, who arrived in Vietnam with about 40 French business leaders, was to spend much of yesterday in Hanoi meeting communist top brass.
He is to then head south to Vietnam’s economic hub, Ho Chi Minh City, to meet French entrepreneurs, including some from Vietnam’s burgeoning tech industry.
Vietnamese President Tran Dai Quang said the two leaders also discussed maritime freedom, a key issue for Hanoi, which has traded barbs with Beijing over competing claims in the South China Sea.
“Me and the president committed to respect the rule of law in the seas and oceans, reaffirming the commitment to maintain freedom of maritime and aviation,” he said. “The two sides stressed the importance of solving disputes by peaceful means, not to use or threaten to use violence on the basis of international laws.”
Tensions between Hanoi and Beijing soared in 2014 when China moved a controversial oil rig into disputed waters, sparking angry riots in Vietnam.
Hollande’s official agenda does not include any plans to discuss human rights or freedom of expression in the tightly run communist country, where bloggers and dissidents are routinely jailed for criticizing the regime.
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