(VOVworld)- Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc begins his trip to Japan to attend the expanded G7 Summit in Mie prefecture, Japan, on Thursday.

He told Japanese media ahead of the visit that Vietnam and Japan have enjoyed a deep and wide strategic partnership and friendship of trust worthiness for mutual benefit, peace, stability and development. The Prime Minister said Japan is Vietnam’s top economic partner with two way trade turnover worth more than 28 billion dollars last year. 2,000 Japanese investors are doing business in Vietnam with 3,000 projects capitalized at 39 billion dollars. Vietnam wishes to promote bilateral strategic partnership for regional peace, friendship and cooperation.

In another development, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc received Italian ambassador Cecilia Piccioni on Wednesday. The Prime Minister expected both countries to promote investment and trade for mutual benefit. He thanked for Italian approval of the free trade deal between Vietnam and the EU and called for further support from Italy in education of highly skilled workforce and software industry. Ambassador Cecilia Piccioni pledged to connect businesses from both sides, saying that Vietnam is Italy's important partner.