Econ
Strengthening trade tie between Vietnam and China
The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) yesterday signed a cooperative agreement with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade’s (CCPIT) Ningbo city chapter to lay the foundation for the two countries’ businesses to accelerate cooperation.
The signing took place at a seminar held the same day aiming to enable Vietnamese and Chinese enterprises to seek and expand respective markets across electricity, electronics, mechanics engineering, chemicals, apparel, beauty products, trade, finance, and real estate.
VCCI Vice Chairman Hoang Quang Phong said bilateral trade between Vietnam and China has incessantly increased over the past years. China has been Vietnam’s leading export market since 2004, in such products as computers and spare parts, natural rubber, coal and rice.
Phong said two-way trade in the first seven months of this year reached nearly 38.2 billion USD, a year on year increase of 1.3 percent, of which imports were 27.3 billion USD, down 3.4 percent and exports were nearly 10.9 billion USD, up nearly 15 percent.
According to Chairman of the CCPIT’s Ningbo city chapter Chai Lida, Ningbo is one of the most developed cities in China, only after Shanghai. The locality has strength in areas like apparel, machinery and gear manufacturing, and seaport.
The chairman revealed that by the end of July 2016, Chinese investors poured over 10.8 billion USD into 1,475 projects in Vietnam, focusing on processing, industrial manufacturing, mining, services, agriculture-forestry-fishery, aquaculture processing, health, and education.
He proposed speeding up the development of a Ningbo industrial park in Vietnam and preparations to organise an international trade exhibition by the Chinese locality in Vietnam in the coming time.
Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh and General Director of China’s Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine (AQSIQ) Zhi Shuping discussed measures to enhance trade and export links between the two countries.
Minister Anh said Zhi’s working visit to Vietnam will promote cooperation between ministries and sectors in many fields. He stressed that enhanced connection between Vietnam’s Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) and the AQSIQ will help implement the two countries’ strategic cooperation programmes, creating favourable conditions for Chinese and Vietnamese enterprises to forge trade and export connections.
The Chinese official highlighted the great potential for cooperation between his agency and Vietnam ’s MoIT because the two sides work in similar fields. He said his agency hopes to closer work with the MoIT to build long-term cooperation, towards fostering trade links between the two nations and their business communities.
During the talks, representatives from the two agencies also looked at issues related to cross-border trade management and export-import goods quarantine. Vietnam-China trade ties have recorded rapid growth in recent years. Vietnam is now China’s biggest ASEAN trade partner.
