Chairman of the Administration of Tourism, Vo Thi Thang Monday received Malaysian Tourism Minister Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor during the his visit to promote the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 in Vietnam.

Thang was "amazed by the growth of the tourism industry in Malaysia and requested the cooperation of the (tourism) ministry for assistance in training its officers to develop, administer and manage the tourism industry and also on ways to promote their country," Tengku Adnan told a press conference later.

At the meeting, Malaysia had requested Vietnam to consider increasing the flight frequencies to Malaysia from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

"So far, there are only 21 weekly flights from Malaysia to Vietnam and 11 flights from Vietnam to our country. We hope the number can be increased so that more people from Vietnam come to Malaysia and vice versa," Tengku Adnan said.

Earlier, he held discussions with members of the Vietnam Union of Friendship Organizations (VUFO) who were led by its president, Vu Xuan Hong.

Among the matters focused were promotions, where costs would be shared by Vietnam and Malaysia, to attract long-term tourists, especially from Europe, to visit both countries.

Tengku Adnan also said there was a year on year increase of about 25 per cent in the number of tourists from Vietnam to Malaysia during the first quarter of this year.

Malaysia recorded 14,239 tourist arrivals from Vietnam between January and March 2006 from 11,351 over the same period last year.

“We are confident of getting 100,000 tourists from Vietnam this year and 200,000 during the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 period," he added.