Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien and Minister of Economy, Entrepreneurship and Tourism Stefan-Rady Oprea at the meeting (Photo: VNA) At the event, the ministers expressed theirdelight at the fruitful relations between the two countries across variousfields, of which economy – trade is an important pillar and a locomotive forthe cooperative ties.
However, they said the two-way trade revenue during the 2019-2022 period, whichrose over 1.6 folds from 2019 to 425 million USD in 2022, still lagged behind the twocountries’ potential and their sound traditional friendship.
Dien and Oprea said capitalising on the cooperation frameworks such as thesigned free trade agreements and the joint committee will help Vietnam and Romania promote trade turnover in the coming time.
Dien took the occasion to thank Oprea for his support to accelerating the negotiationsand signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and the EU-VietnamInvestment Protection Agreement (EVIPA), adding the EVFTA which took effect onAugust 1, 2020 has opened the door for trade activities between Vietnam and theEU and Romania in particular.
The two ministers agreed that both sidesshould take advantage of the EVFTA, open markets for each other’s products,enhance exchanges of business delegations, and promote cooperation in thefields of Vietnam’s interest and Romania’s strengths such as engineering,specific-use machines, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and clean energy.
Suggesting Romania welcome Vietnamese garment and textiles, leather shoes andagro-fishery products, Dien highlighted that Vietnam stands ready to become abridge to enhance the economic-trade relations between Romania and ASEAN aswell as the economies that Vietnam has signed free-trade deals with.
Meanwhile, Oprea said Romania has created more favourable conditions for theimport and export of the agricultural products of the two sides’ strengths, andpaid due attention to promoting cooperation in science-technology, especiallyin AI and digital transformation.
Romania will study Vietnam’s recommendation on establishing a working group onlabour in the framework of the joint committee, he added.
Many Romanian enterprises have expressed their interest in cooperating with Vietnam in oil and gas, electricity transmission, agriculture, IT,pharmaceuticals and tourism, he stressed, adding Romania is willing to serve asa gateway for Vietnamese products to enter other European markets.
Both sides also reached a consensus on stepping up investments in each other to realise the commitments on sustainable and green development and environmentalprotection./.
VNA
