A 12-member business delegation from eastern Germany will visit Vietnam from September 15 to 19 to look for partners and trade opportunities.

Following successful visits by earlier delegations in 2010 and 2011, this time the group is headed by Benno Bunse, chairman and general director of Germany Trade and Invest, and Ines Koerner of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.

There will be 12 businesses from sectors like renewable energy, biogas factory construction, bio-technology, healthcare, education, tourism consultancy, and consultancy for construction design, banking, foreign trade, business administration, and business start-up.

There will be a Vietnam-Germany business forum in Hanoi on September 16 for businesses and investors from the two countries to introduce opportunities to them.

Bunse said: "Vietnam's economic growth rate in recent years has created many opportunities for medium-sized German enterprises, helping turn Germany into one of the biggest trade partners of Vietnam in Europe. Besides, we hope to attract more and more Vietnamese businesses to invest in our country."

In the past 20 years, eastern Germany has developed into a tech hub with a network of 59 universities and many technology centres and great success in education and research, attracting more than 100,000 Vietnamese students.

Since the reunification of Germany 20 years ago, the country's GDP has grown rapidly, strongly driven by increasing demand from Asia.

With Germany's experience in modernising communication and transportation infrastructure in its eastern part in the past two decades, Vietnamese companies can leverage German firms' expertise for Vietnam's own infrastructure expansion and modernisation.

Germany's exports to Vietnam topped 2.9 billion USD in 2013, a 27 percent year-on-year increase. Of this machinery and equipment accounted for 30 percent.

Germany Trade & Invest is the country's foreign trade and inward investment promotion agency. It advises foreign companies looking to expand their business activities in the German market and provides information on foreign trade to German companies.

The delegation's visit will be organised by Germany Trade & Invest, Delegate of German Industry and Commerce in Vietnam, and the State Development Corporation of Thuringia.-VNA