Vietnam inks $6.5bn deal with France’s Airbus during Hollande visit

Vietnamese airlines on Tuesday signed deals with French aircraft manufacturer Airbus for 40 planes worth a combined $6.5 billion, according to local media reports.

Lowcost airline JetStar Pacific, a subsidiary of Vietnam Airlines, signed a $1 billion deal for 10 Airbus A320 jets, while VietJet bought 20 aircraft for $2.39 billion. Vietnam Airlines also signed a letter of intent to buy 10 Airbus A350 planes for $3 billion, French daily Le Monde reported.

Airbus president and CEO Fabrice Bregier said at the signing ceremony that the manufacturer would double the number of job opportunities for local skilled workers by 2020, making Vietnam the firm’s most important Southeast Asian partner, local daily Tuoi Tre News reported.

The deals were announced on the first day of French President Francois Hollande’s twoday visit to the country, where he will hold talks in Hanoi today with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong and National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, according to an epa journalist.

Hollande is also scheduled to give a speech at Vietnam National University and attend a state banquet in the capital before he departs tonight for Ho Chi Minh City in southern Vietnam.

Tomorrow he will meet with Dinh La Thang, secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee.

France is Vietnam’s fifthlargest trade partner in Europe, with twoway trade reaching $4.2 billion in 2015, and is also the third largest European investor in the Southeast Asian country, according to online newspaper VN Express.