Participants at the event (Photo: VNA)Hanoi (VNA) – The ForeignMinistry is hosting a meeting with ambassadors from the Middle Eastand Africa in Hanoi with the aim of boostingtrade ties with the region.
The Middle East – Africa region is a large market with more than 1.6billion people and strong financial resources, especially in the Middle East,which offers lots of trade and investment potential.
Vietnam has always attached great importance to maintainingand developing the traditional friendship and cooperation with other countriesin the region. That good relationship is constantly being strengthened anddeveloped which is shown in positive economic data.
To date, Vietnam has establisheddiplomatic relations with 69 of 70 countries in the Middle East – Africa regionand has economic ties with all countries, with two-way trade turnover of more than 17.5 billion USD in 2018. This number represented a 300 percent growth compared to 2008.
Vietnamese businesses have invested about 2.6 billion USD in this region and received more than 7 billion USD in foreign direct investment from these countries.
The two sides have also successfully set up many effective cooperationmodels including bilateral, tripartite and four-sided collaboration withsupport of a number of developed countries and international organisations.
Bright spots in economic cooperation between the two sides includeagriculture, labour, telecommunication, healthcare and education.
Further deepening the cooperation with the Middle East – Africa region hasalways been one of the priorities in Vietnam’s foreign policy. Vietnam highly appreciatesthe important role and contribution of the diplomats and diplomatic missions ofthe Middle East – African countries in Vietnam, as well as other international organisations, to the achievements.
In that spirit, the event will be attended by the heads of the permanentresident and non-resident diplomat missions, honorary consulates of the MiddleEast - African countries in Vietnam; representatives ofsome major development partners and international organisations such as theUnited Nations (UN), World Bank, European Union, Francophone InternationalOrganisation, JICA; Vietnamese officials from many ministries, sectors andlocalities; and businesses of the two sides.
The conference will hear the update on Vietnam’s socio-economic development and major orientations in its foreignpolicy, especially the country’s highest prioritiesduring its term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for2020-21.
Discussions will focus on the situation of cooperationbetween Vietnam and the Middle East - Africa region, including thecollaboration between the Vietnamese ministries and sectors with diplomaticmissions of the regional countries; ways and means to increase imports andexports between the two sides.
Especially, the possibility of opening a new model of cooperation in theagriculture sector and boosting cooperation in the telecommunication sectorbetween Vietnam and the region will be given special attention.These are two important fields of mutual interest.
Delegates will also have tours to the Vietnam Academy of AgriculturalSciences – the leading research unit in the agricultural and fishery sciencesof Vietnam - and Viettel Group – a Vietnamese telecomcompany with extensive experience in doing business in Africa.
The event is meaningful with trade tensions rising and Vietnamese exportsto traditional markets are gradually approaching the saturationpoint. Boosting trade cooperation with new markets such as Middle East -Africa is a necessary and achievable way for Vietnamese businesses to grow. –VNA
