Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and Belarusian Prime Minister M. Myasnikovich discussed a range of cooperative areas as well as the two countries’ potential for cooperation during their talks in Minsk on September 11.

They include farm produce production and processing, the food processing industry, light industry, construction, electronics, truck assembly and agricultural machinery.

At the meeting, Minister Hoang briefed his host on the outcomes of several events important to Vietnam-Belarus relations which took place this week in Minsk .

They included the tenth session of the Vietnam-Belarus Intergovernmental Committee for Economic, Trade, Scientific and Technological Cooperation , the Vietnam-Belarus business forum and the third round of negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus .

He said the events have achieved good results, contributing to creating favourable conditions and a legal framework for the two countries’ businesses to step up bilateral cooperation in all realms, especially economics, trade and investment.

For his part, the Belarusian PM was optimistic about the prospect for market expansion through bilateral economic, trade and investment cooperation.

He said Vietnam will be a door for Belarus to penetrate the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) market while the Eastern European country will serve as a gateway linking Vietnam with members of the Customs Union.

Minister Hoang conveyed an invitation to visit Vietnam from Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung to PM Myasnikovich.

Within the framework of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to Belarus in May this year, the two PMs have agreed to bring two-way trade to 500 million USD by 2015.-VNA