The Vietnamese and Kuwait business communities should further foster cooperation to narrow their trade gap and raise two-way trade to 1 billion USD in the future, a Vietnamese economic expert has said.

Deputy Director of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)’s Ho Chi Minh City branch Nguyen The Hung made the suggestion during a workshop in the city on December 12, which aimed to provide Vietnamese firms with necessary information on opportunities to make deeper inroads into the Middle Eastern country.

Domestic enterprises must actively study the demand of the Kuwaiti market to promote export and import activities, trade and investment in the country, Hung said.

Efforts made by the Vietnamese and Kuwait Governments to boost their all-around cooperation, especially in oil and gas, education and tourism, will help create more trade and investment links between the two countries and their businesses, he noted.

Sharing Hung’s view, Abdulraman Alothaina from the Kuwait Consulate General in HCM City voiced that Vietnamese firms should actively introduce their products in his country through organising fact-finding tours, exhibitions and fairs, thus setting up partnerships with Kuwaiti businesses.

Vietnamese enterprises can invest in Kuwait in the domains of infrastructure, oil refinery, health, tourism, banking and finance and urban development, the diplomat noted.

Two-way trade between Vietnam and Kuwait in 2013 hit over 740 million USD, including only 35.3 million USD worth of Vietnamese exports. The respective figures for the first ten months of this year were 555 million USD and 53.7 million USD.

Vietnam mainly shipped farm and aquatic products, vegetables and fruits, green tea, products from grains to Kuwait while importing fuel and industrial products from this market.-VNA