Cooperation potential with East Africa yet to be tapped fully

Hanoi (VNA) – Cooperation in trade and investment between Vietnam and Africa, especially East Africa, has yet to meet the two sides’ potential, Vietnamese Ambassador to Tanzania, cum Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda and Comoros Nguyen Kim Doanh has said.

In an interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency, Doanh said that East Africa is a big market with around 245 million people, including 70 million belonging to the middle class.

Countries in the region have to import a lot of building materials, garment and textiles and consumer products due to the underdevelopment of their processing and manufacturing, Doanh pointed out, adding that these products are a strength of Vietnamese enterprises.

According to him, East African people favour made-in-Vietnam goods, especially footwear, garment and textiles, household utensils, farming machines and construction materials.

At present, there are several small traders travelling to Vietnam to import the Southeast Asian nation’s consumer goods, but they are not available in the region.

The diplomat said that some Vietnamese firms have visited East Africa to learn about this market. They said that this is a potential market, but they will face a lot of difficulties when starting investment and business there.

Doanh said that in his meetings with government officials of Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya and Ethiopia, and ambassadors of African countries to Tanzania, they all laud Vietnam’s economic development achievements and want to learn from the country’s experience, especially in the agricultural field such as rice cultivation, aquatic product farming and coffee planting and processing.

To boost Vietnam’s multifaceted cooperation with countries in Africa in general and East Africa in particular, especially in economy, trade and investment, and consolidate Vietnam’s position in Africa, Ambassador Doanh stressed the need to strengthen delegation exchanges, particularly high-ranking delegations, via the Party, State and people-to-people channels.

Vietnam should have a particular relation development strategy with each nation, which defines strengths and prioritized fields in each period, and complete the legal framework in the trade and investment ties with each nation, he added.-VNA