Bui Trung Thuong, head of Vietnam’s trade office in India (source: VNA)New Delhi (VNA) – Commodities fromVietnam have begun to make inroads into the Indian market as seen through thecountry’s first-ever trade surplus with India, standing at 70 million USD lastyear.
Bui Trung Thuong, head of Vietnam’s trade officein India, made the comment during an interview with Vietnam News Agency on theoccasion of 45 years of bilateral diplomatic ties (January 7, 1972) and 10years of strategic partnership with India.
He said since Vietnam and India set up astrategic partnership in 2007, bilateral trade has increased more thanfive-fold from 1.01 billion USD in 2006 to 5.5 billion USD in 2016, accordingto the General Department of Vietnam Customs.
Vietnam’s exports to India jumped 19.34 timesduring that period with average growth of 253 percent annually.
The structure of traded commodities has alsochanged dramatically, from mostly animal feed, corn and pharmaceuticals in thepast to a wide range of goods at present such as agricultural and aquaticproducts, electronic devices, mobile phones and components, machinery,pharmaceuticals, chemicals, garments and automobiles.
Thuong said that the two countries have hugecooperation potential, especially after ties were elevated to a comprehensivestrategic partnership during a visit to Vietnam by Indian Prime MinisterNarendra Modi last year.
He said India is currently a big supplier oftextile and garment materials for Vietnam, with the Southeast Asian nationimporting 423 million USD worth of cotton, fibre, fabric, other materials andapparel products from India in 2013, up nearly 50 percent from the previousyear. This figure reached 460 million USD and 457.47 million USD in 2014 and2015, respectively.
However, it accounted for less than 3 percent ofVietnam’s total imports of cotton, fibre, fabric and other textile-garmentmaterials – about 18.3 billion USD in 2015.
Indian businesses consider Vietnam as a newpartner in automobile, machinery, spare part and equipment production. Many bigenterprises have come to Vietnam to seek partnerships such as Tata Motors,Mahindra & Mahindra, Eicher and Escort, Thuong said.
He also highlighted pharmaceutical and healthcare which are strong industries of India. According to the PharmaceuticalsExport Promotion Council of India, this country’s exports of those productsapproximated 25 billion USD in the fiscal year 2014-2015. Vietnam imported morethan 2.3 billion USD of pharmaceutical products in 2015.
In terms of agriculture, the two countries sharea similar climate, allowing them to boost agricultural cooperation bytransferring technology, exchanging experience and information, and buildingshrimp and tra fish farms.
Thuong noted data from India’s Ministry ofCommerce and Industry showing that bilateral trade reached 9.2 billion USD in2014-2015 and 7.83 billion USD in 2015-2016. He hopes it will be about 9billion USD at the end of fiscal year 2016-2017.
He said to facilitate trade, the two Governmentsshould remove tariff and non-tariff barriers and stop anti-dumping andanti-subsidy investigations into each other’s exports.
They also need to promote existing mechanismssuch as the joint sub-committee on trade, enhance locality-to-locality and business-to-businesspartnership, and hold trade fairs and forums. It is also necessary to carry outthe ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement, ratify other ASEAN-India agreementson services and investment, and finish negotiations on the Regional ComprehensiveEconomic Partnership.
He urged both sides’ agencies and enterprises tooptimise cooperation opportunities. Vietnamese companies should also make useof incentives from the “Make in India” initiative./.
VNA
