Two-way trade between Vietnam and the UK in recent years has experienced robust growth at over 20 percent per annum, despite negative impacts of the global economic crisis, according to the Vietnamese embassy in the UK and North Ireland.

In the first 10 months of 2012, bilateral trade enjoyed a year-on-year increase of 36 percent to stand at 3.57 billion USD. Of which, Vietnam’s export revenue ascended to 3.19 billion USD, up 44 percent year on year, while imports climbed 91 percent to 377.5 million USD.

The strong growth in the reviewed period was thanks to a number of reciprocal conditions that support the two economies’ cooperation, said the embassy’s commercial counsellor Nguyen Thi Hong Thuy.

In order to keep the momentum in 2013, she suggested that Vietnamese businesses should intensify trade promotions in the so called fog island.

Bilateral trade for 2012 is estimated to reach over 4 billion USD, already exceeding the set target of 4 billion USD for 2013.

In 2011, the UK was the second largest European trade partner of Vietnam (after Germany) with more than 3 billion USD worth of goods exchanged between the two countries.-VNA