Opening the forum, DeputyForeign Minister Le Hoai Trung noted that Vietnam has an average GDP growth of6.6 percent a year during the past three years, one of the highest growth ratesin the region and the world.
The country earned nearly 500billion USD from exports in 2018, ranked among the top 30 economies withlargest foreign trade revenues in the world, he said, adding that Vietnam is amember of many new-general free trade agreements, with the latest being theEU-Vietnam FTA to be signed at the end of this month.
The Deputy FM highlighted encouraging progressin the economic-trade partnership between Vietnam and China, with Vietnam beingthe largest trade partner of China in ASEAN and the 8th largest inthe world for many consecutive years.
He said China’s Greater Bay Areaplan released recently creates good opportunities to promote collaborationbetween Vietnam and the potential southern region of China.
Vice Governor of Guangdong province Ouyang Weimin also stressed the big size of Guangdong’seconomy, which was worth nearly 1,500 billion USD in 2018. The province alsoaccounts for nearly one quarter of China’s total foreign trade with 1,100billion USD, ranking first among Chinese localities throughout the past 33years.
The Vice Governor proposed fourpoints to push forward cooperation between Guangdong and Vietnamese localities,including sharing development opportunities in the Greater Bay Area ofGuangdong-Hong Kong-Macau; bolstering bilateral investment and trade ties;promoting exchanges in finance; and deepening tourism and educationpartnerships.
The forum attracted theparticipation of delegates from ministries, agencies and localities of Vietnamand Guangdong along with more than 300 guests from businesses of bothsides.
In the framework of the forum,Deputy FM Trung, Vice Governor Ouyang Weimin and other delegates visited stalls introducing Vietnam’s dairy products, fruitsand confectionery.
The 7th conferencereviewing cooperation between Vietnam’s ministries and localities and Guangdongwas held on June 24.-VNA