Despite the geographical divide, the desire to accelerate bilateral
relations had brought Vietnam and Ukraine closer, Ukrainian Prime
Minister Mykola Azarov told a business conference in Hanoi on
November 15.
During the event that involved the
participation of 40 Ukrainian companies, PM Azarov said he believed that
two-way trade was yet to the match potentials of the two countries, and
was likely to significantly increase in the future.
Besides trade, he also outlined industry, aircraft manufacturing,
energy, shipbuilding, pharmaceutical and machinery as other promising
sectors for bilateral cooperation.
" This is the right
time for Ukrainian enterprises to make further investments in Vietnam as
the country is on the way to restructuring its economy which will
result in many new opportunities with Vietnamese counterparts," said
Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry chairman Vu Tien Loc.
Loc suggested the two governments consider negotiating a Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and Ukraine while encouraging
airlines to open direct flights connecting the two countries.
More favourable conditions should also be created in the near future in
order to facilitate the exports of Vietnamese agricultural products to
the Ukrainian market, Loc said.
Bilateral ties between
the two countries had developed significantly due to frequent trips made
by high-level leaders and increasing efforts to speed up trade and
investment promotion activities in each country, said Vietnam's Minister
of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang.
"However, there is a
room for us to further promote our relations," Hoang said, calling for
enterprises to foster trade and investment promotion and pay more
attention to marketing their products.
During the event,
Ukrainian enterprises expressed their wishes to cooperate with
Vietnamese partners in the machinery, pharmaceutical, textile and
garment, IT, finance and tourism sectors.
Two-way trade
reached approximately 300 million USD in 2011, up 17 percent
year-on-year. Trade hit 198 million USD in the first nine months of
2012, surging 15 percent against the same period last year. Of the sum,
153 million USD came from Vietnamese exports, mainly seafood,
agricultural products, handicrafts, wooden furniture, garments and
footwear.
Ukrainian businesses have to date pumped 30
million USD into Vietnam while Vietnamese firms have invested 27
million USD in Ukraine . /.VNA