At the event (Photo: VNA)Deputy Minister of Industryand Trade Do Thang Hai made the remark at the Vietnam - Latin America tradeforum held both in person and via videoconference on December 9.
He noted bilateral economic andtrade relations have continually thriving in recent years. As a dynamiceconomy, Latin America is becoming an attractive market for the whole world, includingVietnam, while the Southeast Asian nation is also grasping attention ofworldwide businesses, including those from Latin America.
Vietnam currently has tradeties with all the 33 Latin American countries. Bilateral trade rose by over63-fold from 245 million USD in 2000 to 15.6 billion USD in 2020, including 8.3billion USD in Vietnam’s exports.
Meanwhile, Vietnam has hadseveral investment projects worth hundreds of millions of USD in this region.Twenty-seven countries and territories from Latin America have invested in 297projects in Vietnam, registering total capital of some 9.3 billion USD.
Hai noted Vietnam has signed agreementswith several regional countries, especially the free trade deal with Chile thatwas inked in November 2011 and took effect in 2014, and the Comprehensive and ProgressiveAgreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), which includes the three LatinAmerican countries of Mexico, Chile, and Peru.
Those agreements areconsidered important turning points creating new momentum for Vietnam’s tradeand investment links with Latin American countries, he said, adding that the governmentsof Vietnam and Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, which aremembers of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), are also considering a preferentialtrade deal so as to facilitate their goods’ entry into each other’s markets.
Vietnam looks to raisebilateral trade with Latin American countries to about 20 billion USD by 2025and attracts 12 - 13 billion USD in investment from the region, according tothe deputy minister.
Tatiana Clouthier, Secretary of Economy of Mexico which is holding the rotational chairmanship of the Communityof Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), said the CPTPP has created afavourable framework for the two countries’ trade cooperation.
Mexico is interested inconnecting production centres so that the two sides form part of the globalvalue chains in North America and Southeast Asia, she said, encouragingVietnamese suppliers to take part in her country’s value chains.
Ta Hoang Linh, Director ofthe Europe - American Market Department under the Ministry of Industry andTrade, said the Vietnamese Government, the ministry, and the country’s tradeoffices in Latin American countries will make efforts to provide Vietnamese localities andbusinesses with market information, connect them with foreign partners, andhelp them address difficulties in accessing and operating in the Latin American region./.
VNA
