HCM City leader receives newly accredited Indian ambassador

During the reception, Nen thanked the Indian Embassy in Hanoi and the Indian Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City for their effective and close cooperation in promoting bilateral cooperation in the fields of culture and education, information technology, trade and industry.

He affirmed HCM City would create favourable conditions for Indian firms to come and do business in Vietnam and the city in particular. He hoped that the opening of direct flights between Vietnam and India would help promote trade and tourism cooperation, as well as mutual understanding between the two peoples.

Indian Ambassador Sandeep Arya for his part said that Vietnam is India’s most important trading partner in ASEAN. The two countries have established the strategic partnership, with Vietnam playing an important role in India’s Indo-Pacific vision as well as its Act East policy.

In the face of the changing world, he said both Vietnam and India have positive changes reflected in their economic, trade and investment relations. While global GDP growth slipped to less than 3%, those of India and Vietnam rose to 6.8% and 8.02% respectively last year.

The Indian Ambassador highly appreciated the potential for cooperation between the two countries, noting bilateral trade turnover reached US$15 billion in 2022, representing a year-on-year rise of 13.6% but only accounting for 2% of Vietnam's total trade turnover with the world.

In his opinion, the two countries still have a lot of room to ramp up bilateral trade, especially in the fields of renewable energy, oil and gas, information technology, digital economy, and pharmaceuticals in the context of the industry 4.0 revolution, besides existing fields of cooperation such as tourism, culture, defense, security, and financial technology.

He revealed Vietnam and India are preparing for reciprocal visits of the two countries’ senior leaders in 2023, following a range of activities held last year marking 50 years of bilateral diplomacy.