Visitors to a Vietnamese Goods Week in Thailand (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Efforts by Vietnam’soverseas representative agencies over recent years have helped to strengthenthe country’s trade and investment ties with partners around the globe, seniordiplomats have said.
On the sidelines of the ongoing 30th DiplomaticConference in Hanoi, Vietnamese Ambassador to India Ton Sinh Thanh explainedthat his embassy has not only continued to organise events to promote trade,investment, tourism, and aviation, but also directly helped to remove obstaclesblocking trading activities between the two countries. It has encouraged Indianfirms to invest in Vietnam and assisted them in addressing any difficultiesthey may face, he added.
As a result, Indian investment in Vietnam overthe last three years has grown at a faster pace than in the previous period. Asof April 2018, there had been 182 valid Indian investment projects, worth atotal of 816 million USD and placing the country 28th amongst those countriesand territories investing in Vietnam.
Connectivity plays a central role in economicexchange, he stressed, adding that it will initially bring direct benefits totourism. India’s outbound tourists have increased sharply recently, at about 22million people each year at present – a figure hoped to reach 50 million in thenear future.
In 2017, more than 3.5 million Indian touristsvisited Southeast Asia, including 110,000 to Vietnam – a rise from 85,000 in2016. The number of Indian arrivals in Vietnam is expected to hit 150,000 thisyear. If further direct air routes are opened, this figure may hit 300,000annually, he noted.
In recent years, the embassy has made efforts toimprove the two countries’ connectivity, particularly in terms of transport byair – including meetings with Indian airline firms and encouraging Vietnamesecarriers to open direct flights to India. As a result, Vietjet Air announcedthat it will open a direct route from Ho Chi Minh City to New Delhi this October.Meanwhile, Indian carrier IndiGo also plans to launch a direct air route toVietnam next year, Thanh said.
In South Africa, the Vietnamese Embassy hasworked hard to promote economic diplomacy – one of the three pillars ofdiplomacy, according Ambassador Vu Van Dung. He noted that they have supportedmarket expansion in order to help maintain bilateral trade at over 1 billionUSD in the context of local and global economic slowdown.
He elaborated that over the past few years, theembassy has also actively coordinated with local agencies to organise and takepart in an array of events – including the Southern African International TradeExhibition (SAITEX), the trade and investment promotion workshop of Vinh Phucprovince, and the ASEAN-Africa Business Expo – in big South African economichubs like Johannesburg and Cape Town, solidifying the connection between thetwo business circles.
In terms of the Vietnam-Malaysia relations,bilateral cooperation and friendship have been consolidated along many differentdimensions, including culture, economy, politics and diplomacy, and defence andsecurity, according to Ambassador Le Quy Quynh.
Quynh said his embassy has worked hard to stepup multifaceted ties and is pleased with the Malaysia-Vietnam Chamber of Commerce’sestablishment in January 2017 and its official debut in November the same yearto help connect Malaysian enterprises with Vietnamese partners.
Meanwhile, Vietnam is one of the main ASEANtrade partners of Spain, Ambassador Ngo Tien Dung noted, adding that theVietnamese community and embassy there have acted as a bridge, helping todevelop bilateral connections.
He said that two-way trade has risen by some 15percent each year over the last decade to surpass 3 billion USD in 2017. Bothsides expect this figure to reach 5 billion USD by 2020. The European nation isalso looking to create further business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific regionwith other countries.
Vietnam and Spain will celebrate 10 years oftheir strategic partnership in 2019. Therefore, pushing ahead with meetings andmutual visits at all levels and between businesses is a practical measure totap into enormous cooperation chances and potential, thus contributing to thedevelopment and common interests of both countries, the diplomat said. –VNA
VNA
