Business operation will be facilitated in Vietnam and Japan through an extended economic cooperation framework agreement between Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, as determined on May 19.

After the agreement was signed in late 2012 in Japan, the two sides have seen numerous achievements, including successful trade collaboration between the two countries’ business communities, development of the support industry in Vietnam and cooperation in environment and energy conservation.

The updated agreement will make great contributions to bilateral trade relations towards enhancing multifaceted cooperation between the two sides.

In the first eight months of 2014, Vietnam saw a trade surplus of nearly 1.86 billion USD from exports to Japan. The country’s imports from Japan hit 7.88 billion USD with the majority in machinery equipment, computers, electronics, steel products and plastic.

After signing the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA) in 2010, a number of Vietnamese export businesses have effectively taken advantage of preferential tariffs to boost exports to the Japanese market.-VNA