Vietnamese Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat is visiting Egypt to attend the country’s Economic Development Conference from March 13-15 with the aim to enhance bilateral trade and investment ties.

Vietnam’s participation in the conference reflects the two nations’ time-honoured friendship and solidarity, said Phat, adding that the event presents a good opportunity for Vietnamese businesses to seek cooperation opportunities and contribute to elevating trade value to 500 million USD this year.

The Egyptian Economic Development Conference has a great political and economic significance to Egypt, the most populous country in the Middle East and North Africa. The Egyptian Government plans to introduce and call for investments in 30 large-scale projects worth roughly 20 billion USD, mainly in oil & gas, electricity, mining, transport & logistics, tourism and education.

Bilateral ties between Vietnam and Egypt have progressively grown, fortified by mutual support provided at international forums. Egypt also recognised Vietnam’s full market economy mechanism in November 2013.

Trade reached 370 million USD in 2014, up 85 percent from the previous year. Vietnam mainly sells agricultural and seafood products and automobile spare parts to Egypt.

Vietnam’s current participation in eight free trade agreements and negotiations on six others coupled with Egypt’s participation in the Arab Free Trade Area will create favourable conditions for enterprises in both nations to expand their exports to other markets.-VNA