Vietnamese businesses hope to seek partners and sign more economic contracts at the ongoing13th Malaysia International Food and Beverage Trade Fair (MIFB).

Malaysia is one of Vietnam ’s most important strategic partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and is a huge potential market, said the Deputy Director of the Asian-Pacific Market Development Department under the Industry and Trade Ministry, Chu Thang Trung.

This year, the ministry chooses Malaysia , particularly the MIFB as one of trade promotion activities to introduce Vietnamese brand names that are exported to the market, Trung added.

On display in Kuala Lumpur from July 12-14, Vietnamese pavilions were very popular with well-known brand names of agricultural products and seafood.

Statistically, over the last few years bilateral trade between Vietnam and Malaysia has been increasing at roughly 20 percent year on year. Two-way trade reached 6.66 billion USD in 2011, of which Vietnamese exports accounted for almost 2.76 billion USD. In the first six months of this year, the figure was about 4 billion USD.

This year’s MIFB attracted 350 businesses from 20 nations and territories across the world to display their various products, goods and services in 500 stands on an area of 11,800 sq.m.-VNA