Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh led a delegation to visit Malaysia from June 11-12 in a bid to promote economic cooperation between the two countries.

During the visit, the Vietnamese guests met with their counterparts from the Malaysian ministries of agriculture and agro-based industry, international trade and industry and the Malaysia Import Agent, during which they analysed opportunities to further forge links.

The two sides focused their discussion on how to speed up the implementation of contracts on exporting rice from Vietnam to Malaysia, while agreeing plans to enhance and expand bilateral cooperation in the coming time.

According to Deputy Minister Anh, Vietnam -Malaysia relations have seen fine development in all fields, including economic and trade ties. The two sides hope to upgrade their bilateral relationship to a strategic partnership in the coming time.

Malaysia is now Vietnam’s third largest trade partner within ASEAN, while Vietnam is the fifth biggest economic partner of Malaysia in the region.

Two-way trade between the two nations has recorded strong growth in recent years, from over 4 billion USD in 2009 to more than 9 billion USD five years later, and the figure is expected to reach 11 billion USD in 2015.

Anh said Vietnam considers Malaysia a strategic market in Southeast Asia, as the country has an import-export structure well aligned with Vietnam’s exports, especially rice.

Moreover, both Vietnam and Malaysia are joining in the negotiation process of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement, which is expected to help further bolster economic ties between them.-VNA