HCM City, Chinese province pledge to facilitate bilateral trade

 

HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City and China’s Shandong province aim to facilitate bilateral trade by holding more networking events, encouraging investments between both sides, and signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), promising more support in the future.

During a conference held in HCM City on May 23, numerous businesses in different fields from Shandong and Vietnam met to find potential partners.

Vo Tan Thanh, Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s HCM City branch, said that Vietnam and China have had a close business partnership for 68 years.

According to VCCI, in 2017, bilateral trade between the two countries was over 93.6 billion USD (30 percent higher than 2016), accounting for 22 percent of Vietnam’s total bilateral trade.

Vietnam exported over 35.4 billion USD worth of goods to China (61.6 percent higher than 2016), focusing on products such as seafood, rice, rubber, garments and mobile phones.

As of March 2018, China ranked seventh among countries investing in Vietnam, with nearly 1,900 projects valued over 12.4 billion USD.

In addition, according to Wei Xichen, Chinese Consul General in HCM City, many Chinese companies are interested in working with Vietnamese companies in fields such as rubber, fishery processing and tailoring.

Compared to other markets, China is very open to Vietnamese goods without having many requirements, as long as the goods are of high quality, he said.

China is especially fond of Vietnam’s basa fish, cashew, coffee beans, peppers and dragon fruits.

Shandong is one of China’s most populated and economically developed regions, with a 2017 GDP of over 1 trillion USD, ranked third in China, according to Liu Xiaojiang, Vice Chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) – Shandong Sub-council.

The province also excels in fields such as agriculture, mechanics, construction and food processing.

“The province considers Vietnam to be one of the most important business partners in ASEAN. In 2017, bilateral trade between Shandong and Vietnam was around 5.5 billion USD,” Liu said.

Vietnamese firms have been encouraged to visit Shandong to find more opportunities to work with local businesses.

The International Imports Exhibition in Shanghai, to be held in November, has invited Vietnam to attend.

The VCCI and CCPIT also signed a MoU to foster trade, promising to increase collaboration efforts and networking opportunities for firms so they can find reliable long-term partners.

According to VCCI, Vietnam and China aim to reach a two-way trade of over 100 billion USD in 2018.-VNA