Rio de Janeiro (VNA) - Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh received leaders of four Brazilian corporations in Rio de Janeiro on November 17 (local time) as part of his trip to Brazil for participation in the G20 Summit and bilateral activities.
The firms are aerospace company Embraer, meat producer JBS, Oceanside One Trading, and smart card solution supplier Alterosa.
At the meetings, Chinh highlighted the strong and growing Vietnam-Brazil relationship, underscored by mutual political trust and complementary economic strengths.
Bilateral trade reached over 7.1 billion USD in 2023 and 6.58 billion USD in the first 10 months of 2024, he noted.
The Vietnamese leader highlighted Vietnam and Brazil's similarities and shared aspirations for peace and development, as well as great potential for cooperation.
He called on Brazilian firms to promote investment in Vietnam, and pledged that the Vietnamese Government will continue improving the country's business and investment environment, speeding up administrative reform and providing optimal conditions for Brazilian investors to effectively and sustainably operate in Vietnam.
Jose Serrador, Global Vice President of Embraer, the world’s third-largest manufacturer of commercial aircraft, affirmed the company's wish to continue promoting comprehensive collaboration with Vietnam.
He committed to expanding cooperation with Vietnam, particularly in exploiting routes such as Hanoi-Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi-Con Dao, and in defence trade.
Chinh said Vietnam is focusing on developing maritime space, underground space, and aerospace, and that the country aims to establish an aviation transit centre.
Pointing to Vietnam's potential in aviation development and rising demands, he encouraged Embraer to support Vietnam’s ambition to become a global aviation hub through sustainable fleet development, pilot training, technology transfer, and airport construction, while cooperating with Vietnam in other fields such as defence trade, search and rescue.
Meanwhile, Celso Nunes, Innovation Director at Alterosa, presented plans to enhance partnership with Vietnam in smart card solutions.
Chinh welcomed Alterosa's activities in Vietnam and urged the firm to expand its partnerships in Vietnam, both in scope and scale, particularly in digital security authentication solutions and smart card technology, helping to build the country’s digital infrastructure, digital economy, and digital society, digital government, and citizenship.
He welcomed the firm to explore opportunities in emerging fields such as artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things. The PM encouraged Alterosa to collaborate with Vietnam’s National Innovation Centre to drive innovation and develop financial hubs, advancing the country’s technological and economic transformation.
Marcio Rodrigues, CEO of JBS, the world’s largest meat producer, proposed making Vietnam a strategic hub for the Asian market. PM Chinh welcomed this idea and invited JBS to expand investments in Vietnam, including facilities for livestock processing, food security, and leather production. He also encouraged the further integration of Vietnamese agricultural products into global supply chains.
Last year, the firm earned 8.3 billion USD in revenue with more than 65,000 labourers worldwide.
Chinh expressed his hope for JBS to establish a greater, deeper, and broader presence in Vietnam in the coming years. He encouraged the company's leaders to visit Vietnam soon to explore further cooperation opportunities, enhance supply chain expansion, and bring Vietnam’s diverse agricultural products to Brazil and global markets. Additionally, he urged JBS to invest in factories in Vietnam, focusing on leather production, manufacturing, processing, and exporting livestock and poultry meat.
At the meeting with the Vietnamese leader, Roger Zen, Chairman and CEO of Oceanside One Trading, briefed him on the group’s operations and touched upon opportunities to expand business and investment collaboration with Vietnam.
Oceanside One Trading is a leading American trading conglomerate headquartered in the US, with subsidiaries in Brazil. The group specialises in trading commodities such as chemicals, oil and gas, tires, fertilizers, and urea. In 2023, its revenue exceeded 500 million USD, with a commercial presence in over 50 countries and territories.
In Vietnam, the group has signed an export agreement for automotive tire products with a subsidiary of the Vietnam National Chemical Group (Vinachem) for the Brazilian market, valued at 120 million USD. Oceanside One Trading aims to increase its export volume to the US and Brazilian markets from 70 million USD to 150 million USD annually in the near future.
Roger Zen praised the potential for collaboration with Vietnam, highlighting the strong friendship between the two countries, their cultural similarities, and the complementary strengths of their economies. He noted the group’s desire to continue purchasing goods from Vietnam and increasing exports to the country, targeting annual trade growth of 15–20%.
Welcoming Oceanside One Trading’s ideas and plans for cooperation, the PM encouraged the group to provide input to help Vietnam improve its institutional framework.
He suggested the group enhance trade collaboration, explore investment opportunities, introduce more Vietnamese products to global consumers, and help the country integrate more deeply into the global supply chain.
Highlighting Vietnam as a promising consumer market with over 100 million people and a growing middle class, the leader said the country has signed 17 free trade agreements (FTAs) with over 60 major economies. He called on Oceanside One Trading and JBS to support negotiations for a new-generation FTA between Vietnam and the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), as well as Brazil, and to advocate for investment protection agreements./.
