Vietnam firms told to seek Chinese partners

Speaking at a seminar held last Friday in Ho Chi Minh City, Li Zhenmin, commercial and economic counsellor at the Chinese Consulate, urged Vietnam to seek Chinese partners for long-term cooperation in trade and investment.

Vietnam’s trade deficit with China has ballooned in recent years, and now stands at $9.8 billion.

While Vietnamese officials have urged China to increase imports, Li said China had opened its doors to Vietnamese exports.

Citing statistics from China’s Customs Department, he said China’s import turnover from Vietnam had recorded an average growth of 15-20 per cent per year in recent years, a relatively high rate.

For many years, China has been the largest buyer of agricultural exports from Vietnam.

Vietnam is the second-largest trade partner of China in the Asean region.

This year, bilateral trade between the two countries is expected to reach $100 billion, Li said.

“To increase cooperation, a transnational e-commerce floor for the two countries should be established. We can take advantage of the Internet to increase information transparency, which would create favourable conditions for the two countries’ businesses,” he said.

Chinese importers do not understand the Vietnamese market fully, he said, adding that Vietnamese businesses also encountered obstacles and should seek only competent and reliable Chinese importers. Li advised Vietnamese businesses to increase export quality, avoid violations of intellectual-property rights, and refuse to make or buy counterfeit products.

Nguyen The Hung, deputy director of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said relations between Vietnam and China had shown impressive growth but there was still unexploited potential.

Last year, the total export-import turnover of the two countries reached $58.7 billion, an increase of 16.5 per cent from 2013.

Vietnam’s exports in 2014 totalled $14.9 billion, up 11.8 per cent. Imports were $43.8 billion, an increase of 18.2 per cent. In the first five months of this year, Vietnamese exports to China were valued at $6.1 billion, a decrease of 1.2 per cent over the same period last year. Vietnam’s imports in the period totalled $15.9 billion, an increase of 19.1 per cent.