Vietnam, Ghana hope to foster trade, business relations

Hanoi (VNA) – A forum was held in Hanoi on November 28 to seek ways to enhance trade and business partnerships between Vietnam and Ghana.

Do Quoc Hung, Deputy Director of the Asia-Africa Market Department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, said the two countries have enjoyed increasingly enhanced relations, especially in trade and investment, and Ghana is now a leading trade partner of Vietnam in West Africa.

In the time ahead, relevant agencies of Vietnam and Ghana should coordinate more strongly to bring bilateral trade and investment on par with cooperation potential, he noted.

In terms of trade with Ghana, Vietnam exported 278.3 million USD and imported 294.6 million USD worth of goods in 2018, up 4.5 percent and down 8.1 percent year on year, respectively, said Nguyen Minh Phuong, a representative of the Asia-Africa Market Department.

In the first 10 months of 2019, Vietnam’s exports to Ghana reached 224 million USD while imports from the African nation were valued at 287 million USD, Phuong added.

Hung said Vietnam’s main exports to Ghana include rice, household utensils, clinker, steel, textiles-garments, and mobile phones and components. In return, Ghana is an important material supplier for the Southeast Asian nation, mostly raw cashew nuts, which accounts for 88 percent of Vietnam’s imports from Ghana, and timber.

Notably, Ghana is the biggest rice importer of Vietnam in Africa. In 2018, it imported over 371,181 tonnes of Vietnamese rice worth 214.1 million USD, making up 76 percent and 48 percent of Vietnam’s exports to the country and the whole Africa, respectively.

At the forum, Ghanaian Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry Robert Ahomka-Lindsay highlighted the two countries’ sound relations, particularly in trade, noting that bilateral trade has been growing well in recent years.

He said Ghana is currently in the process of industrialisation and has paid attention to developing a healthy business climate and is calling for foreign investment.

With each country’s advantages and potential, Vietnam and Ghana have numerous prospects to strengthen cooperative ties in many areas like trade, industry, agriculture, and investment, the official added./.