Forum opens up opportunities for stronger Vietnam- Luxembourg trade links
VOV.VN - The Vietnam - Luxembourg Business Forum is viewed as opening up the potential for economic co-operation between the two countries in the near future.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel was speaking at the Vietnam - Luxembourg Business Forum Minh which was held on May 5 in Ho Chi Minh City, featuring the participation of 150 Vietnamese manufacturing and import-export enterprises, along with nearly 30 Luxembourg enterprises.
This represents an important event in a string of activities aimed at celebrating the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
According to Luxembourg PM Bettel, currently there are many Luxembourgish enterprises investing and operating in the Vietnamese market, including logistics ones. Co-operation and mutual support will therefore help both countries to develop faster, he went on to say.
The Luxembourg PM highlighted Vietnam as an important partner in multiple fields, as well as being one of the marks in which his country has invested great resources into as a means of promoting the partnership with. Meanwhile, Luxembourg is an important partner and a gateway for Vietnam to enter the EU market, he said.
Vietnam is fast becoming one of the most dynamic economies in the region and the world, he noted, outlining that economics, trade, and investment have always been promising and prioritised areas in term of the ties between the two sides.
Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien said that over the past five decades, the two nations have enjoyed growing friendship and expanding trade and investment partnership.
Vietnam is currently the eighth largest trade partner of Luxembourg outside of the EU, while Luxembourg is the country’s third largest EU investor.
Two-way trade has tripled over the past five years. In the first three months of this year the figure soared by 8.2% on-year, even amid the global economic downturn, he said, stressing that amid difficulties and challenges ahead, both sides should work together, especially in trade and investment, to strengthen the resilience of each economy.
The two sides also boast greater potential in ramping up their trade ties as the export product structures of the two countries can supplement each other, with this being a good condition for businesses of the two countries to build and reinforce their partnership, especially in terms of trading products of each other’s strengths and demands, said Minister Dien.
According to him, the Vietnamese side can export apparel products, leather and footwear, furniture, tropical farm produce, and aquatic products to Luxembourg, whilst importing chemicals, rubber, plastic products, steels, financial, banking, and insurance services from the European country.
Highlighting partnership opportunities between the two business communities, Vo Tan Thanh, vice president of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that as of March Luxembourg had invested in 61 projects with total capital of US$2.6 billion in Vietnam, duly ranking third among the 24 EU member states and 17 out of 139 countries and territories investing in the nation.
He expressed hope that Luxembourg, with its strengths in services, finance, and banking will share its experience and co-operate with Vietnam in fields relating to green, digital, and circular trends.
According to Thanh, despite the impressive growth recorded in trade and investment co-operation between the two countries recently, it has yet to match the potential that exists between the two nations that share many strategic similarities.
He suggested that the two sides co-ordinate more closely in removing obstacles and barriers hindering their trade relations, including speeding up the approval of the EU-Vietnam Investment Protection Agreement (EVIPA) and the removal of the “yellow card” placed against Vietnamese seafood products.
Businesses and investors of the two countries should therefore strive to explore each other’s market through official channels and seek partnership opportunities, he said.
Tourism is also a promising co-operation area for the two sides, particularly with Vietnam in need of human resources training for the tourism sector, Thanh added.
At the forum, the VCCI and the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, along a number of businesses of the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding on their co-operation, thereby paving the way for the expansion of the economic, trade, and investment partnership between Vietnam and Luxembourg in the time ahead.
The previous day earlier, a trade connection programme between businesses of the two countries took place, bringing together 50 Vietnamese enterprises and 10 partners from Luxembourg.