Illustrative image (Photo:VNA) Vietnam is an attractive destination and promising market for businesses from Finland, especially in education and communication-information technology (ICT) fields, as heard at a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City on October 20.
Regarding education, Finland has named Vietnam as the only Asian nation in the list of receiving funds from the second phase of the North-South-South education exchange programme.
Several training units in Vietnam such as the Hai Phong University and the Hue University of Medicine and Pharmacy have already established cooperative ties with Finland.
Regarding technology, the two nations have built the Innovation Partnership Programme (IPP) with a non-refundable aid package from Finland worth 3 million USD.
Experts said the bilateral cooperation potential remains enormous and businesses should take advantage of this workshop to seek investment opportunities and trade connectivity tools to expand affiliation in education and ICT as well as other domains.
Addressing the event, Finnish Ambassador to Vietnam Ilkka-Pekka Simila said the cooperation between the two countries has been consolidated in recent time, adding that Finland regards Vietnam as an important partner in economy, trade and investment.
Additionally, the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the EU basically completed in August 2015 has created numerous opportunities and more propitious conditions for Vietnam and Finland to boost their bilateral and multilateral cooperation, he noted.
Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s branch in HCM City Vo Tan Thanh said one of the positive signs in the bilateral relations is the dwindling trade deficit, which hit only 56.6 million USD in 2014, a decrease of 22 percent year-on-year.
Two-way trade in the first eight months of this year reached over 215.6 million USD, of which Vietnam earned some 78 million USD from exports and imported over 137 million USD worth of goods.-VNA
