Staff writer

Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai will make his first official visit to Japan as premier from March 28 to 30 to strengthen bilateral economic relations, government sources said Monday.

The government is expected to approve the Vietnamese leader's travel plans at a regular Cabinet meeting Friday. During his stay in Tokyo, Phan Van Khai will hold talks with Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi, have an audience with the Emperor and meet with top Japanese business leaders, the sources said.

Phan Van Khai's visit will be the first by a Vietnamese prime minister in six years. His predecessor, Vo Van Kiet, visited Tokyo in the spring of 1993, only months after Japan became the first major industrialized country to resume full-scale economic aid for Vietnam. Phan Van Khai succeeded Vo Van Kiet as premier in a reshuffle of the Vietnamese government leadership in September 1997.

During their meeting scheduled for March 29, Phan Van Khai and Obuchi will issue a joint press statement welcoming the development of bilateral relations in recent years in a wide range of areas, including political and security dialogue, economic cooperation and cultural exchanges, the sources said. The two leaders will also sign an official note on the Japanese provision of 88 billion yen in low-interest official yen loans for power, transport and other infrastructure projects in the communist country, the sources said.

Japan, Vietnam's largest aid donor, pledged to provide a total of 102 billion yen in fresh official development assistance, including the 88 billion yen in loans, at an annual meeting of Vietnam's aid donors in Paris in early December. It was the first time that the amount of fresh Japanese ODA pledged at such meetings exceeded the 100 billion yen level. The remaining 14 billion yen was in the forms of grant-in-aid and technical cooperation.

Obuchi pledged during a visit to Hanoi in December that Vietnam will be added to a list of Asian nations eligible for Japanese assistance under the Miyazawa Plan," a $30 billion economic rescue plan named after Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and announced in September.

During Phan Van Khai's visit, however, Tokyo will not be able to announce any specific assistance projects for the Vietnamese economy under the plan, the sources said. They also said that Obuchi will convey to Phan Van Khai a Japanese plan to open two centers in Vietnam -- one in Hanoi and another in Ho Chi Minh City -- during fiscal 1999, which begins in April, to help foster human resources in the Southeast Asian country, the sources said.

The centers, to be established with Japanese ODA money, will also be used for such purposes as teaching the Japanese language to Vietnamese businesspeople and promoting cultural exchanges between the two countries, they said.