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Mid-east offers opportunity for struggling exports
Open and transparent business policies, coupled with great economic potential despite the global downturn, are what the Middle East offers Vietnamese exporters, a Vietnamese trade official has said.
The region, consisting of 15 countries, mostly oil exporters, saw gross domestic product grow at 5.9 percent last year, said Nguyen Cong Hien, deputy head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade’s Department for African, Western and Southern Asian Markets.
Its GDP growth was expected to be around 5 percent this year, he told a seminar titled “Potential and Technical Barriers in the Mid-east market” held in Ho Chi Minh City on March 25.
Vietnamese businesses should make every effort to increase exports to a market that was faring well despite the widespread recession in Asia and Europe, he said.
The region’s imports last year were worth 541 billion USD, 41 percent higher than in 2007, and the purchasing power was “huge”, he said.
Despite all this, Vietnam’s trade with the region last year was worth a mere 2.03 billion USD, with exports accounting for 1.27 billion USD.
Vietnam exported seafood, coffee, pepper, cashew, rubber and electronic components and imported raw plastic, oil products, chemicals and liquefied petroleum gas.
Vietnam is currently cooperating with Iran in oil exploration and with Kuwait for building the Nghi Son Refinery in Thanh Hoa province, Hien said.
The Middle East “desperately” needs to get guest workers from other countries, he said, pointing out that locals made up just half the work force, with the remainder coming from India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Egypt.
Saudi Arabia, for instance, has 7 million guest workers and is willing to employ 400,000 to 700,000 Vietnamese workers, he said, and the UAE, 5,000.
Le Van Tri, deputy general director of Casumina Corporation, said the Middle East was a promising market that many large countries, including China and India, a eyeing.
His company’s exports to the region last year were worth 1.5 million USD out of its total revenue of 2.8 trillion VND (160 million USD), he said.
He asked exporters to take advantage of trade promotions by the ministry to find foreign partners.
Tri stressed the important role of distributors in dealing with procedures and problems arising when doing business in the region.
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