Vietnam Envoy Expects Bilateral Trade Volume to Reach $1 billion

The COPAIR is Islamabad-based think tank where media man, TV Anchors, and office bearers of Federation Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) attended the event held here.

The Ambassador said that the two countries have extensive economic and commercial cooperation in the textile and yawn, leather, surgical, fabric and tourism sectors.

He said that the import of Vietnam’s fabrics is 34.45 billion, where Pakistan has wider opportunities and Pakistan’s exports to Vietnam in this sector are very less.

Similarly, Vietnam’s surgical equipment imports are $ 479 million dollars, where Pakistan’s presence is negligible. Nguyen Tien Phong said that there are vast opportunities for trade cooperation between Vietnam and Pakistan in tourism.

He said that Vietnam was importing many products including cotton yarn, medicines, surgical instruments, leather products, fabrics, chemicals, meat and mutton products, pet food, fertilizers and Pakistan should enhance exports of these products to Vietnam to take the bilateral trade to over $1 billion. He said that Pakistan has a talented workforce in IT and software field and Vietnam has good demand for these professionals, so Pakistan can increase the export of its IT manpower to Vietnam.

Ambassador pointed out , “The fabric import of Vietnam in first 11 months of 2022 is 13.6 billion USD. Vietnam imports US 1.7 billion dollars worth leather, of which Pakistan’s export share was just 1.5 percent. Similarly, Vietnam imports pharmaceutical products of around US 3.3 billion dollars but Pakistan’s export share was 0.25 percent only while the stainless steel surgical products worth $ 638 million are also being imported by Vietnam but Pakistan’s export of these items is hardly 0.18 percent”,

As of November 30 of this year 2022, 2.85 international tourists visited Vietnam in the last eleven months, the number is increasing every year. In domestic tourism, 83.6 million Vietnamese people visited different places in their country.

The Vietnamese envoy said that Vietnam’s tourism has an annual potential of $20 billion dollars, which is increasing every year.

The Ambassador said that the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and Pakistan resumed in 1972 when both countries were suffering from a crisis and during this time the countries promoted the relations by promoting mutual trust.

He said that the two countries have supported each other at international forums during this time and strong diplomatic, economic and trade relations have progressed further.

Nguyen Tien Phong said that Pakistan is a country with a large population whose influence extends not only to South Asia but also to the Pacific.

He said that there is a framework for promoting mutual economic and trade relations between Pakistan and Vietnam. Under this framework, mutual relations are renewed every year through negotiations and mutual dialogue.

“The historical mutual trust and cooperation in both the countries is of utmost important in mutual relations. Shared prosperity, regional connectivity and justice are the basic components of Vietnam’s foreign policy, Ambassador noted.

He said that in the coming year, it is possible for the two countries to exchange the heads of state or high-profile visits, which has a strong possibility of further strengthening of mutual relations.

Ambassador said that Journalist and Business community should form a delegation for Vietnam and he would fully support in making this visit successful. Exchange of trade delegations is important to explore new avenues of mutual cooperation.

He termed consistency, continuity and stability as key requirements for Pakistan to attract foreign investment from Vietnam, ASEAN and other countries.

The Ambassador said that Pakistan’s trade volume with ASEAN countries is $11 billion, which is much less than its current potential.

The ASEAN’s total merchandise trade reached USD 3.3 trillion in 2021, of which 21.3% was within the region, while services trade reached USD 743 billion with intra-ASEAN comprising 11.7%, he said.

Meanwhile, inflows of foreign direct investments to ASEAN reached USD 174.1 billion in 2021, 12.0% of which was among ASEAN Member States, he said.

The Ambassador was of the view that regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in which ASEAN plays an important role has huge potential for ASEAN and Pakistan economic, trade, investment to reach a new high level with the shift in paradigm from geo-politics to geo-economic in Pakistan.

 Amna Malik said that in this era, digital economy and digital connectivity are of utmost importance, which is an essential part of the global economy. He said that mutual economic and trade relations between Vietnam and Pakistan can be further improved by promoting emerging technology and adopting modern trade methods.

Amna stressed for promoting strong business linkages between the private sectors of both countries in order to explore all untapped areas of mutual cooperation in order to make significant growth in trade volume. She said that the main reason for low trade was the lack of awareness about business opportunities between the enterprises of both countries.