The newspapers focused on bilateral economic cooperation, particularly seven contracts worth US$3.5 billion signed between Vietnamese and Czech businesses during the business forum on September 13 and the biggest project on building a thermo-power plant at a capitalisation of US$3 billion.

Though Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organisation, trade imbalance between Vietnam and the Czech Republic remains high. Annual exports of the Czech Republic to Vietnam stood just US$13 million while imports from Vietnam hit US$90 million. With contracts signed during PM Dung’s visit to the Czech Republic, trade imbalance between the two countries will be narrowed.

The Czech government has considered Vietnam one of the countries having export priority in its 2006-2010 development plan. Czech businesses accompanying President Vaclav Klaus to Vietnam last year signed in Hanoi a number of contracts valued at 3.6 billion curon to build cement and beer factories in Vietnam. The Czech Republic can export machines and equipment to Vietnam as well as exporting and importing other products such as footwear, textile, construction materials, glass and foodstuff. Czech businesses now have opportunities to invest in Vietnam’s traffic sector, as the country is upgrading its traffic system.  Moreover, information technology, banking and insurance will also be promising fields for Czech businesses to invest in.