Vietnamese firms to explore Bulgarian, Romanian markets

Hanoi (VNA) - The Trade Promotion Agency (Vietrade) under the Ministry of Industry and Trade, together with its partners, will organise a business trip for 20 domestic companies to seek new opportunities in Bulgaria and Romania from October 3.  

The enterprises operate in a wide range of areas including farm produce such as fruit, tea and coffee, seafood and dairy, besides mechanical equipment and plastics, handicrafts, energy, finance, banking and human resources.

The week-long trip aimed to better advertise Vietnamese enterprises and provide them with the latest market information so they could adopt effective business strategies to accelerate their exports, a representative from Vietrade said.

Currently, Romania is the largest market in southern Europe for Vietnamese goods, with a population of 21 million people. The country is regarded as a gateway to the EU with more than 500 million consumers thanks to its geographical position.

Trade relations between Vietnam and Romania have seen positive results in recent years. Last year, bilateral trade saw a slight increase of 6 percent to 218.3 million USD, with Vietnamese exports accounting for 150 million USD, up 23 percent year-on-year.

In the first quarter of 2019, bilateral trade turnover saw a significant rise of 37 percent to nearly 67 million USD, mainly due to Vietnamese exports which surged 60 percent year-on-year.

The same picture has also been seen in the two-way relationship between Vietnam and Bulgaria.

The nations’ leaders had agreed to develop bilateral co-operation on the basis of taking advantage of the potential and strengths of the two countries. Under the deal, Vietnam could export a number of major products to Bulgaria. These goods would be processed at facilities located at Bulgarian ports and then exported to European markets and Balkan countries, the representative said.

After slumping nearly 19 percent to 89 million USD in 2018, trade value between Vietnam and Bulgaria rebounded in the first two months of 2019 with turnover of 15 million USD, up 26 percent year-on-year. Of the total, exports of Vietnamese goods reached 8.2 million USD, a hike of 87 percent./.