Vietnam eyes trade potential with Central, Eastern Europe
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Vietnam and four Central and Eastern European countries - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia - have the potential to boost trade and investment cooperation in many sectors, a senior official said at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday
The ties with each country would generate unique advantages, said Nguyen Duc Thuong, deputy director-general of the Industry and Trade Ministry’s European Market Department.
He said the four countries “have high demand for products that are our strength, including agriculture products, footwear, garments and textiles, and wooden products”.
Trade between Vietnam and the four countries has increased in recent years, with Vietnam enjoying a surplus, he told the seminar, which was held to seek cooperation opportunities for enhancing trade and investment ties with the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
“As I know, the mechanical engineering industry, food industry and high-technology industry in these countries are well developed, providing good-quality machinery and equipment at competitive prices,” he said. “Therefore, besides seeking chances to boost exports to these markets, Vietnamese enterprises should pay more attention to importing mechanical products, machinery and equipment and even some high-tech products from these countries.”
Milan Vagner, economic counsellor at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Hanoi, said enterprises from his country could provide Vietnam with advanced technology in environmental treatment, mining, agriculture, packaging, and food and beverages. Cars and auto parts, aircraft, software and communication are other areas that present good cooperation potential. The Czech Republic can also help Vietnam develop its glass industry, bio-technology and nanotechnology, Vagner said.
Lenart Istvan, commercial counsellor of the Embassy of Hungary, said that apart from food items, medicines and medical devices, Hungary could provide Vietnam with agriculture and harvesting technology, environmentally friendly fertilisers and bio-fertilisers, milk-processing technology, water-management technology, energy-recycling technology and banking-software security systems.
Istvan called on Vietnamese firms to open representative offices or set up joint ventures in Hungary, citing low property prices and competitive labour costs compared with other European countries.
In the past few years, Vietnamese enterprises have shown increasing interest in investing in Hungary, he added.
More and more Vietnamese banks are interested in the European market, with the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and VietinBank both having opened offices in Europe recently.
“I hope other banking institutions will come to Hungary to invest,” he said.
Wojciech Gerwel, economic counsellor of the Polish Embassy, and Jaroslav Jelenik, economic counsellor at the Slovak Embassy, also presented the respective strengths of their countries and highlighted areas with high cooperation potential with Vietnam.
Besides the agriculture, high-tech and pharmaceutical industries, Poland can offer high-end technology in coal exploitation to Vietnam, since it is the eighth-biggest coal producer in the world.
Jelenik said Slovakia was looking to boost trade and investment ties with Vietnam in machinery, precision engineering, metal processing, electronics, mechanical and pharmaceutical industries.
As of last month, Slovak firms had invested in five projects in Vietnam with a total capital of US$235.5 million (Bt7.2 billion); Polish firms had 10 projects with a combined capital of $100 million; the Czech Republic had 27 projects with $65.5 million; and Hungary had 12 projects worth $47.3 million.
