HANOI, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen TanDung said he believed Vietnam and Chile would soon ratify a bilateral free trade agreement, developing trade and investment cooperation between the two countries, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Friday.

    Receiving Chilean Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Furche Thursday, Dung said Vietnam wanted to learn and share experience and cooperate more strongly with Chile in all sectors, especially trade and investment.

    Furche, visiting Vietnam to work with relevant agencies on negotiating the bilateral trade agreement, said Chile was ready to be a gateway for Vietnamese goods to enter the Latin American market, and hoped that Vietnam would do the same to Chilean commodities in the Southeast Asian market.

    Trade volume between Vietnam and Chile has increased in recent years, reaching over 200 million U.S. dollars in 2007.