Strengthening Vietnam-China economic and trade relations

Viet Nam and China have great potential for cooperation in various fields and the Party and Government of both countries have created favourabe conditions for Vietnamese and Chinese businesses to realise their targets.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai made the statement at the Vietnam-China Business Forum, which was held in the framework of the 5th China-ASEAN Expo and 5th China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning city, Guangxi province, China on Oct.22.

Present at the forum were Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien, Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce, Gao Hucheng, Vice Chairman of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yang Daoxi, as well as hundreds of representatives from businesses in both countries.

Speaking at the event, Deputy PM Hai expressed his pleasure at the fine development of traditional friendship and cooperation between Viet Nam and China in recent times. The bilateral trade relations have experienced rapid increase to reach an annual growth rate of 25 percent. Last year, two-way trade turnover reached US$16 billion, surpassing the US$15 billion target set for 2010.

The participation of 130 Vietnamese businesses and more than 200 Chinese businesses in the forum has demonstrated the strong determination of the government and business sectors of the two countries to develop bilateral trade ties to a higher level. Through this forum, both sides talked about trade policies, the investment environment and business opportunities and discussed measures to develop trade and investment relations, especially between Viet Nam and Guangxi province, he added.

For his part, Yang Daoxi said that apart from building the ASEAN-China free trade area, the cooperation between Viet Nam and China has expanded in numerous fields. For three consecutive years, Viet Nam has been one of China’s largest trading partners with a two-way trade turnover between Guangxi and Viet Nam reaching US$2.4 billion in 2007. The figure also stood at nearly US$2.2 billion in just the first eight months of this year, he said.

Mr Yang also proposed six measures to strengthen bilateral economic and trade ties, including boosting regional cooperation based on “the two corridors and one economic beltway” scheme, promoting transport network development between Viet Nam and Guangxi, building cross-border economic areas, enhancing cooperation among craft sectors, creating good conditions for trade and investment cooperation, and building and maintaining cooperation mechanisms via the annual ASEAN-China Expo.

Participants in the forum also witnessed the signing of 20 cooperation projects between Vietnamese and Chinese businesses, worth nearly US$15 million in total. (VOV)