Cooperating with Vietnam benefits South Africa: official

South African Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Alvin Botes (Photo: VNA)

Pretoria (VNA) - Promoting cooperation with Vietnam will bringpractical socio-economic benefits to South Africa, the African country's DeputyMinister of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) Alvin Botesaffirmed while accompanying a delegation of the Vietnamese Embassy on a recent working visit to Northern Cape province.

The official said that South Africa continues toimplement the policy of expanding diplomatic relations with traditionalfriends, including Vietnam.

This time, the Vietnamese embassy presented 250,000 facemasks to the province’s Education Department and several schools in thelocality.

Ambassador Hoang Van Loi said that Vietnam is striving to curb the spread of COVID-19, giving the highest priority to people'slives and health, promoting the vaccination drive and gradually restoring economicactivities.

The two countries’ trade turnover reached around 1.4 billionUSD in 2020, up 23 percent year-on-year, and 706 million USD in the first halfof this year. However, Vietnamese exports to South Africa accountsfor only 1.3 percent of the country’s total import value.

Vietnam is actively increasing exports of apparel, footwear,coffee and pepper to South Africa and expanding cooperation in education andmining with the nation, Loi added./.

VNA