Omani Minister of Commerce and Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The third meeting of the Vietnam-Oman Joint Committee on Economic and Technical Cooperation took place in Hanoi on March 23, focusing on reviewing the implementation of cooperation agreements reached at the previous meeting and seeking measures to further promote bilateral affiliation in the future.
The Vietnamese delegation was led by Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, while the Omani team was headed by Minister of Commerce and Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy. The event also drew Omani Ambassador to Vietnam Sultan Saif Hilal Al Mahruqi.
The two ministers briefed each other on socio-economic situation in each country. They agreed on a number of measures to boost bilateral partnership, including speeding up negotiations for the soon signing of an agreement on visa exemption for diplomatic and official passport holders.
The two countries will enhance cooperation between their Chambers of Commerce and Industry to encourage business communities of both sides to increase delegation exchanges as well as trade, investment promotion activities.
At the same time, they will share information to update their businesses on trade policies as well as import-export regulations, market demand, business opportunities and projects in each country.
Meanwhile, they will consider the possibility of expanding cooperation in areas of oil and gas, finance, banking, labour, agriculture, aquaculture, transport, culture, sport and tourism.
Concluding the event, the two ministers signed a minute of the meeting.
Statistics showed that in 2017, trade between Vietnam and Oman reached 116.7 million USD, up 122.2 percent over 2016. Vietnam exports were 40.9 million USD, up 74 percent, mostly from cellphones and spare parts, machines and equipment, automobile parts, and agricultural products.
Meanwhile, the country imported 75.8 million USD worth of products from the Middle-East country, a rise of 161 percent over the previous year, mostly metals, ore and minerals, plastic materials, animal feed and materials.
So far, Oman has run five investment products in Vietnam with total registered capital of nearly 340 million USD.-VNA
VNA
