Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Do Thang Hai (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is ready to work with Argentine Ambassador to Vietnam Luis Pablo Maria Beltramino to boost economic, trade, and investment ties between the two nations, Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai has said.
During a working session with the ambassador who has just started his tenure in Vietnam, Hai expressed his delight at the stable growth in two-way trade over recent years, which reached 3.95 billion USD last year, up 4.3 percent compared to 2019 despite COVID-19.
As Argentina is now Vietnam’s third-largest trade partner in Latin America, behind Brazil and Mexico, he hoped that the ambassador and the Argentine embassy will continue working to facilitate trade exchange between the two countries’ business communities, towards gradually achieving a more balanced trade landscape.
The ambassador, for his part, expressed a belief that with improving business climates in both nations, businesses will be well-positioned to prosper.
He pledged to do his best to tackle problems in two-way trade as well as facilitate multi-sector exchanges between the two countries.
Both sides also agreed to hold the seventh meeting of the Inter-Governmental Committee on Economic, Trade and Scientific-Technological Cooperation this year.
Figures show that Vietnam’s exports to the Latin American country hit 567 million USD last year, up 2.34 percent, while imports rose 4.64 percent to 3.38 billion USD.
Vietnam’s exports were mostly mobile phones and spare parts, computers, electronics and accessories, footwear, machinery, equipment and other supporting tools, apparel, and footwear materials. The country imported animal feed, corn, cotton, soya, and vegetable oils from Argentina.
According to MoIT, two-way trade hit 440 million USD this year as of late February, down 3.22 percent year-on-year. Of this, 174 million USD was Vietnam’s exports to Argentina, up 164.52 percent year-on-year, while imports were down 31.61 percent./.
