President of the European Commission (EC) Jose Manuel Durao Barroso willpay an official visit to Vietnam on August 25-26, the second after hisfirst visit seven years ago, with a view to fostering all-roundcooperation with Vietnam, particularly economics and trade.
With the establishment of their diplomatic ties in 1990, Vietnam and theEuropean Union (EU) have seen growing ties marked by the signing of thePartnership and Cooperation Agreement and the start of the Vietnam – EUfree trade agreement negotiations.
Politically, both sideshave facilitated regular visits by senior officials, notably the January2013 and October 2010 visits by Party General Secretary Nguyen PhuTrong and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. On the EU side, President ofthe European Council Van Rompuy came to Vietnam in November 2012 andVice President of the EC, high representative of the Union for ForeignAffairs & Security Policy Catherine Ashton made her arrival inAugust 2014.
Vietnam has set up strategic partnerships withsix EU member countries, namely the UK, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands,France and Italy.
Trade is a key pillar in bilateral tieswith the EU being the second largest trade partner and the biggestexport market of Vietnam.
Two-way trade soared sevenfold from4.5 billion USD in 2001 to 33.7 billion USD in 2013. In 2012, the EUbeat out the US to become Vietnam’s biggest importer for the first time.
In the first half of this year, Vietnam’s trade with the EUvalued at 17.5 billion USD, 13.1 billion USD of which was worth ofexports, up 12 percent year-on-year while imports fell 4.6 percentannually.
The country earns mostly from apparel, footwear,coffee, seafood, wooden furniture, electronics and consumer goods whilespending on machinery, tools and spare parts, computers, electronics,garment materials, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and transport vehicles.
Over the past 10 years, the Southeast Asian nation has run atrade surplus of 3-5 billion USD with the EU, equivalent to half of itsexports.
As of this June, 23 out of 28 EU member states gainedstrong footholds in Vietnam with 1,471 projects worth a total 18.38billion USD, predominantly in the processing and manufacturing industry;power, gas and water supplies, communications and media, and realestate.
Most of their projects were in Ho Chi Minh City, with538 valued at 2.77 billion USD. Hanoi led the pack in inflows value,recording 3.06 billion USD in 341 projects. Coming next were thesouthern provinces of Ba Ria – Vung Tau and Dong Nai, and the northernport city of Quang Ninh.
For Vietnam, it poured some 115million USD in 47 projects across Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, theCzech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, the UK, Italy, France, Greek andBulgaria. The biggest worth 50 million USD was by Vietinbank, whichopened a branch in Germany’s Frankfurt city – a financial hub in thebloc.
As the second biggest donor of official developmentassistance and the top supplier of non-refundable aid to Vietnam, the EUcommitted to another 400 million EUR to the nation between 2014 and2020, up 30 percent from the 2007-2013 period.
Both sides have kept dialogues on human rights issue going in a constructive manner.-VNA
With the establishment of their diplomatic ties in 1990, Vietnam and theEuropean Union (EU) have seen growing ties marked by the signing of thePartnership and Cooperation Agreement and the start of the Vietnam – EUfree trade agreement negotiations.
Politically, both sideshave facilitated regular visits by senior officials, notably the January2013 and October 2010 visits by Party General Secretary Nguyen PhuTrong and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. On the EU side, President ofthe European Council Van Rompuy came to Vietnam in November 2012 andVice President of the EC, high representative of the Union for ForeignAffairs & Security Policy Catherine Ashton made her arrival inAugust 2014.
Vietnam has set up strategic partnerships withsix EU member countries, namely the UK, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands,France and Italy.
Trade is a key pillar in bilateral tieswith the EU being the second largest trade partner and the biggestexport market of Vietnam.
Two-way trade soared sevenfold from4.5 billion USD in 2001 to 33.7 billion USD in 2013. In 2012, the EUbeat out the US to become Vietnam’s biggest importer for the first time.
In the first half of this year, Vietnam’s trade with the EUvalued at 17.5 billion USD, 13.1 billion USD of which was worth ofexports, up 12 percent year-on-year while imports fell 4.6 percentannually.
The country earns mostly from apparel, footwear,coffee, seafood, wooden furniture, electronics and consumer goods whilespending on machinery, tools and spare parts, computers, electronics,garment materials, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and transport vehicles.
Over the past 10 years, the Southeast Asian nation has run atrade surplus of 3-5 billion USD with the EU, equivalent to half of itsexports.
As of this June, 23 out of 28 EU member states gainedstrong footholds in Vietnam with 1,471 projects worth a total 18.38billion USD, predominantly in the processing and manufacturing industry;power, gas and water supplies, communications and media, and realestate.
Most of their projects were in Ho Chi Minh City, with538 valued at 2.77 billion USD. Hanoi led the pack in inflows value,recording 3.06 billion USD in 341 projects. Coming next were thesouthern provinces of Ba Ria – Vung Tau and Dong Nai, and the northernport city of Quang Ninh.
For Vietnam, it poured some 115million USD in 47 projects across Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, theCzech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, the UK, Italy, France, Greek andBulgaria. The biggest worth 50 million USD was by Vietinbank, whichopened a branch in Germany’s Frankfurt city – a financial hub in thebloc.
As the second biggest donor of official developmentassistance and the top supplier of non-refundable aid to Vietnam, the EUcommitted to another 400 million EUR to the nation between 2014 and2020, up 30 percent from the 2007-2013 period.
Both sides have kept dialogues on human rights issue going in a constructive manner.-VNA
