Embassy works to fortify Vietnam-Israel economic diplomacy

Tel Aviv (VNA) – The 30th anniversary of the Vietnam-Israel diplomatic relations in 2023 opens the door for the Vietnamese Embassy in the Western Asian nation to step up economic-diplomacy-related activities, especially promoting the early approval of a bilateral free trade agreement, affirmed Ambassador Ly Duc Trung.

Making his remarks at an interview with the Vietnam New Agency, the diplomat stated Vietnamese Party and State leaders strongly support and facilitate the steady development of the countries’ trade and economic relations, including the coming into being of the Vietnam – Israel Free Trade Agreement (VIFTA), labour cooperation in agriculture, collaboration in innovation and entrepreneurship, and exchange of collective economic models and measures in response to epidemics.

The Vietnamese community in Israel is about 500, not to mention hundreds of students who come here every year to practice and be trained under the agricultural trainee cooperation programme. Trung said he believes that the expatriates play a very important role in promoting the bilateral economic and trade ties.

According to the ambassador, Vietnam’s economic diplomacy with Israel has many advantages, as the sides have developed official diplomatic relations for 29 years. Israeli people are fond of Vietnam, while Vietnamese admire their Israeli peers for their outstanding achievements in scientific research, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Vietnam-Israel trade grows about 30% on an annual basis and is expected to reach approximately 2.2 billion USD this year. Therefore, the embassy is striving to bring the figure to about 3 billion USD as soon as possible.

In early 2023, Vietnam and Israel will embark on the final round of negotiations for the VIFTA. Both sides hope to complete the discussions of all contents over the past 11 years so that they can sign and implement the agreement as soon as possible, bringing practical mutual benefits.

Trung said the embassy, moreover, will continue to work with Israeli associations and ministries to remove bottlenecks related to negotiating a labour cooperation agreement in the agricultural sector, in order to open up the potential market in the future./.