Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan (C) and President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce Vladimír Dlouhý (second from left) (Source: VNA) Prague (VNA) – Vietnamese Ambassador to the Czech Republic Ho Minh Tuan and President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Vladimír Dlouhý on July 17 discussed measures to boost bilateral cooperation in economics, trade and investment after the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) was signed on June 30.
Tuan said that EVFTA, once taking effect, will facilitate the development of trade and investment cooperation between Vietnam and the EU, including the Czech Republic.
The agreement will help the Central European country to intensify the export of its strong commodities to Vietnam to improve the trade balance, he stated.
He expressed his hope that Vladimír Dlouhý, as the CCC President, will represent the Czech business community to canvass his country’s Parliament and Czech parliamentarians at the European Parliament to soon ratify the EVFTA and the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement.
Dlouhý told the Vietnamese diplomat that the fields his country wants to foster collaboration with Vietnam include automobile manufacturing, food industry, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, electronic equipment and tourism.
The CCC is willing to cooperate with the Vietnamese embassy to hold seminars and forums related to trade and investment to help Czech enterprises understand more about the Vietnamese market, its policies and cooperation opportunities, he affirmed.
Statistics from the CCC show that last year, two-way trade reached nearly 1.2 billion USD, in which Vietnam enjoyed a trade surplus of over 900 million USD. Vietnam mainly exports electronic equipment, footwear and leather products, rubber, seafood and farm produce to the Czech Republic, while importing energy equipment, boilers, mechanical tools, TV screens, surgical instruments, and glass and crystal products.
Vietnam and the Czech Republic will celebrate the 70th anniversary of their diplomatic ties in 2020.-VNA
VNA
