Vietnam becomes China’s largest ASEAN trade partner
Participants attends at a business conference on bilateral trade between Vietnam and China yesterday in Hanoi.
During a business conference yesterday in the capital, Huang said Vietnam has become China’s largest trade partner in ASEAN in 2016, and two-way trade would likely reach US$100 billion this year.
Đỗ Kim Lang, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Trade Promotion Agency agreed, saying there was ample room for the two countries to further boost commercial ties.
He added that the Vietnamese Government made great efforts to improve the country’s investment and business climate to facilitate domestic and foreign business, including enterprises from China.
General Secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Pham Thi Thu Hang, described the business forum as a good chance for the two nations’ businesses to explore co-operation opportunities.
During the event, enterprises discussed opportunities to co-ordinate across a wide range of sectors,
including electronics components, handicrafts, household utensils, interior decoration and design.
Data from the Vietnam General Department of Customs showed an eight per cent growth of two-year trade to US$71.9 billion in 2016.
Việt Nam exported $21.97 billion worth of goods, mainly computers and parts, vegetables and fruit, seafood and electronics, to China in 2016, up 28.4 per cent year-on-year, while its imports from the neighboring country saw a slight yearly increase of 1 per cent to $49.93 billion. Last year, Vietnam’s trade deficit with
China dropped 14 per cent to $27.96 billion.
In terms of investment, China was one of Vietnam’s leading sources of foreign investment with 1,615 projects, capitalised at US$11.1 billion, as of March, 2017.
Also at the conference, Nguyen Noi, deputy head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment encouraged businesses from China’s Zhejiang Province to invest in Vietnam’s supporting industries, high-tech industries and environmentally-friendly ones.
